


Losing my mind

by Dexiha



Series: Song based fics [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: But No One Else, Canon Rewrite, F/M, Fifth Year, Fourth Year, Hogwarts Fifth Year, Hogwarts First Year, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Hogwarts Second Year, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Hogwarts Third Year, James and Lily are dead, M/M, Second year, Seventh year, Third Year, Well - Freeform, almost everyone lives, first year, sixth year, this fic has a life of its own so don't blame me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 05:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16509857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dexiha/pseuds/Dexiha
Summary: This is a 'brief' rewrite of the entire hp series, and it's based on the song 'Losing My Mind' by Daughtry. There are quite a lot of things happening in this fic that I don't really know how they happened or why they happened. I swear, after about 2k this thing got a life of its own and i could not control it any longer. Things just happened.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [loveglowsinthedark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveglowsinthedark/gifts), [chibaken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibaken/gifts), [parkkate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/parkkate/gifts), [PukingPastilles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PukingPastilles/gifts), [unicornsandphoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unicornsandphoenix/gifts), [gnarf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnarf/gifts), [lq_traintracks (lumosed_quill)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumosed_quill/gifts), [aibidil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aibidil/gifts).



> Thanks to Dot [(all-drarry-to-me)](https://all-drarry-to-me.tumblr.com) for the beta, it is soooooo appreciated. I truly don't know what I'd do without your help!!

“ _Never thought a train goin' any place could've changed my life_

_Never thought I'd say I could go insane, 'til I saw your eyes_

_And I had to take another look to know for sure_

_That you could be for real_

_You found an empty seat sittin' next to me_

_And I asked your name_

_Where you comin' from?_ ”

That’s how it all started. The blond boy from Madam Malkin’s came to sit with Harry and Ron on the way to Hogwarts. He realised that he and Harry had gotten off on the wrong foot and wanted to try over again. Harry thought the same. And it worked. The boy became friends with both Harry and Ron. Their friendships grew strong enough during the train ride, so that when Harry and Ron were sorted into Gryffindor and Draco, naturally, was sorted into Slytherin, they still got along perfectly well. Hermione might’ve disagreed about that ‘perfectly well’ part, because Harry and Draco bickered _slightly_ too much for her taste. Though, maybe she shouldn’t be one to talk with all the small fights she had with Ron.

Their first year at Hogwarts presented quite an adventure, as they learnt that there was something hidden in the school. And Harry’s scar kept hurting. And Draco let jealousy get the best of him when Harry made the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. But after an explanation of how it all had come to be because Morag MacDougal had teased Neville, and after some time, he came back around. In the end, he even turned out to be Harry’s greatest supporter.

By working together, the four eleven year olds managed to solve the riddles about the hidden stone, prevented the Dark Lord from rising and grew a even stronger bond between each other. The House Cup that year was shared between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

* * *

 

Second year had offered yet another matter that sparked Draco’s — by now well-known — jealousy: Harry being a Parselmouth. But it didn’t take long until Draco saw how pained Harry was by all the looks that the other students gave him, and his desire to protect the Golden Boy grew stronger than his envy. Whenever he could, he’d sit by the Gryffindor’s side, helping him to keep his mind off the sneers that were sent his way.

Together, he, Ron and Harry went into the Chamber of Secrets, while Hermione laid petrified in the Hospital Wing. When Ron got stuck with the obliviated Gilderoy Lockhart, Draco and Harry continued deeper into the Chamber. After Harry, with the help of Fawkes, defeated the basilisk, Draco destroyed the diary. Though neither of them noticed when Ginny woke up, for both of them were busy hugging each other close while crying, as they both believed that Harry would be dead in less than a minute. That did not happen, though, as a few tears from the Phoenix healed the wound.

That year, the House Cup was won by Slytherin, but the Quidditch Cup went to Gryffindor.

* * *

 

Now, it had come to be their third year. While Harry had spent the last part of his summer vacation between first and second year at the Burrow, he lived the last few weeks of this summer at Malfoy Manor. With that a lot of new things had come to happen. First, he had gotten to know Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. Lucius seemed a bit shady, for he seemed more interested in Harry being Harry Potter than being Draco’s friend. But Narcissa was fine. And spending time with Draco was amazing. There was so much to do and play with and there were not really any rules. Harry had never been so free in his life. Yet, most of the time, he and Draco had just sat in Draco’s wing and talked. For they understand each other so much better than anyone else did. And even though Harry had gotten a wing of his own, he spent most of his nights in Draco’s bed. The presence of someone else seemed necessary for him to not be pestered by nightmares.

Thanks to this, the two boys were closer than ever when they returned to Hogwarts. But it was also because of this that Harry did not know about the escaped murderer Sirius Black and how he was probably trying to get ahold of Harry. And once he did get to know about him, he couldn’t quite get it to add up. The story about the Marauders and the betrayal didn’t make sense, and neither did the belief that Black was after him just _because_.

While no one in Gryffindor Tower seemed to agree (actually, they thought Harry to be quite mad), Draco was there to see the situation through Harry’s view from the start. Ron and Hermione worked on trying to get Harry to hide or take on preventions so that Black couldn’t get to him, but Draco helped him to get the story straight. With Draco’s help, and after lots of research they decided that the official story about Black’s betrayal must be false and they set up a plan for how Harry was going to meet up with the man. Their sneaking around did not go unnoticed though, as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Remus Lupin, was observant enough to see the two boys planning something. When they went to see Black in the Shrieking Shack, he followed them and since he stayed behind the door to eavesdrop on them, he go to hear the true story about Pettigrew’s mistake.

When the story had been told, Lupin burst through the door and threw his arms around the other man in a tight embrace. Trembling, he mumbled apology after apology for not trusting in him more. Sirius only shook his head and hugged him back while explaining that he understood. All the evidence had pointed at him. And he also explained that he didn’t blame Pettigrew for it all either, since it had been obvious back then that he was under a lot of pressure and, most of all, fear. They all knew how horrible the Dark Lord could be, and they all should’ve helped Peter earlier when they saw him getting more and more unsure of himself. Because they had seen it. But they hadn’t done anything about it. And they regretted it.

Right after this, Ron stormed into the shack, for he had realised that Draco and Harry had gone to confront the infamous Sirius Black.

“Get you wand down and stand back unless you want to confront me in a duel!” he shouted, pointing his raised wand right at the two wizards standing in front of him. The scenery wasn’t what he had expected though, and seeing Professor Lupin hugging the supposed murderer caught him quite off guard. “Wait, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Long story, mate, long story.” Harry answered with a pat on Ron’s shoulder and gave him a look that told him that he and Draco would tell it all later. “For now, I think we need to talk to Dumbledore. There are a few details in Sirius’ crime record that are amiss.”

Soon enough, it was all settled and after a new trial, Sirius Black went out to be a free man. That night, Draco and all his Hogwarts friends celebrated. Though they were still way too young to consume anything spirituous, the amount of sugary drinks they drank was enough to create a rather enlightened mood. In the euphoria of a sugar kick, they all settled in the Gryffindor Common Room to eat snacks and play games. With time, Harry and Draco automatically shifted closer and closer to each other on the sofa they were sharing and when it was nearing curfew, and only their closest friends were left, Harry was placed with his head in Draco’s lap. Absentmindedly, Draco traced his fingers through Harry’s hair and massaged his scalp lightly while he watched the boy smile and laugh with his friends.

It struck him like a lightning bolt, matching the scar on Harry’s forehead. Merlin’s beard, he was only thirteen years old, but he was falling in love with his best friend. And even worse, he was falling in love with Harry Potter. Despite their fights, despite both of them having a fair share of flaws, he was falling deeply for the Gryffindor. How did this even happen? Though, not sharing the other boy’s talent for jumping straight into things without thinking, Draco didn’t dare do anything about it. At least not yet.

Draco didn’t pay attention to who won either of the Cups this year. He was busy sorting through his thoughts about how beautiful Harry was looking at his table on the other side of the room.

* * *

 

Excluding the few days that Harry had to spend in Little Whinging, most of his summer break between his third and fourth year was spent at Grimmauld Place, where he further got to know Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. He learned more about his parents and their life at Hogwarts. And he learned about the relationship that the two of them had shared, which made the thought of Sirius’ betrayal even more heartbreaking for Remus. With this newfound knowledge, his weeks at Malfoy Manor got rather interesting. He was constantly wondering and evaluating his feelings for he had started to realise there might be something _else_ mixed within what he felt for his best friend Draco Malfoy. The summer didn’t end too well though. With Harry constantly thinking, he wasn’t paying much attention to what happened around him, and that resulted in Draco getting quite pissed at him. What Harry didn’t know was that this happened because Draco thought they were growing apart and it was breaking his heart.

With those differences between each other, the start of their fourth year was rugged. It was starting to get better when the two friends spent hours and hours on end discussing the students from the visiting schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. But just as it almost were back to normal, Harry’s name was thrown out of the burning Goblet. Just as Ron, Draco got envious but he also felt betrayed once again. It didn’t get better when Harry seemed to show a certain interest in the other Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory. With all that jealousy and envy, Draco got along quite well with Ron for a few weeks during which they talked behind Harry’s back.

However, as the first task was drawing closer, they both started to really notice how uncertain and lonely Harry was. Draco was especially reminded about how it had been in second year, and there was no longer any space for animosity in his heart. Together, he and Ron worked down their degrading feelings toward Harry and by the time Rita Skeeter got especially nagging towards Harry, they were both there to protect him. And during Harry’s battle with the Hungarian Horntail, they were the ones to cheer the loudest.

There was still some uneasiness in Draco and Harry’s relationship though. The feeling of being betrayed was still present just under Draco’s current feelings and Harry was constantly fearing that the other boy would leave again. This led to the Slytherin snapping at Harry every other day and both of them got into rows even more often than usual, something that did not work in Harry’s favour when it came to figuring out the clue for the next Triwizard task. He hated these proper fights he had with Draco, yet nothing seemed to stop them from happening.

It wasn’t only Harry and Draco that suffered from it. Ron and Hermione were constantly caught in between, and it happened fairly often that they uttered a comment or two about Draco and Harry acting as if they were a married couple: Because they always fought about irrelevant tasks or small things that truly weren’t worth fighting about, yet they always got back together after each conflict.

The second task drew closer and yet Harry did not know what to do about it. He hadn’t cracked the egg’s riddle and it was only half a week left. Draco didn’t help much, and while Hermione did lots of research, Harry found he didn’t have the energy to confront the topic her way, or even with her. She had a totally different way of approaching problems and even though he knew she meant well, it just wasn’t the way that fit him the best.

Cedric Diggory saved him. As a thanks for Harry tipping him off about the dragons before the first task, he gave back a clue as for how to prepare. This encounter though did not only have a positive outgoing. Despite it leading to Harry getting to hear the message in the Prefect’s bathtub, it also lead to another jealous fit on Draco’s side. The last days before the task, they didn’t talk at all and it had Harry utterly miserable.

Thanks to the Gillyweed Neville gave him, Harry was as ready as he could be on the morning of the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. Yet, he felt nowhere near ready, because he was out of himself with worry. He hadn’t seen Draco all day, and since Hermione too was gone, Ron had left  to search for her. He was completely alone, and Merlin did he miss Draco. He missed his smile and his encouraging words. He missed his shining silver eyes and calming hands. He missed having him close, to hug him.

Only one minute before Crouch Sr let the pistol go off to mark the start of the task, Harry realised he was in love with Draco Malfoy. The thought made a thousand others swim around in his head, but he pushed it all into the back of his mind so he could focus on the task and then find a boy he really needed to talk to.

In the end, it worked out easier than Harry ever had thought it would. Since it was made very clear how important Draco was to Harry, all the bad blood that had run between them during the past months was forgotten. Though neither of them was ready to confess yet, they both knew their importance to the other now. It seemed nothing would be able to break them apart again.

Everything seemed perfect during the Spring Ball as they went together as each other’s dates. Perfect enough, so that they almost fooled themselves into believing their dancing meant something else. Something more. They got shaken into reality though, because of the horrendous fight that happened between one torn Hermione and one jealous Ron.

Yet, it still felt perfect for Draco and Harry. Though the fight between Hermione and Ron was of higher seriousness than usual, it still wasn’t something uncommon, and everything felt normal for someone who was fourteen years old.

Of course that sense of perfectness couldn’t stay forever. Everyone knew that nothing gold can stay. But Draco thought that this time fate was quite a bit too cruel to Harry, because this time, the perfection was ruined by an absolute catastrophe. It was ruined by the return of the Dark Lord.

After Barty Crouch Jr had been caught, Harry was finally allowed to go and tell his friends about what had happened. He told them about the graveyard and the potion. He told them about Pettigrew and how he’d tormented him and Cedric with the Cruciatus Curse while preparing Voldemort’s uprising. But it had seemed like he was under the Imperius Curse based on his glazed eyes and rigid moves. Then he told them about the Death Eaters assembling and he gave Draco a look that told him that there was something else, something that he couldn’t tell here when Ron and Hermione were listening. At last he told them about the duel he had been forced into and his parents’ energies coming to his rescue, and how it enabled his and Cedric’s escape.

Harry followed Draco to the dungeons afterwards. And during that promenade, Harry told him about his father. And he explained how this worried him because he was unsure about how this would affect Draco and his mother. It was utter bullshit, really, how Harry could care more about Draco and Narcissa’s well-beings than about his own, even though everyone knew that the Dark Lord would be chasing him. Yet, Harry kept ranting about it so Draco stopped him in his track to ask:

“ _Where you headed to this Saturday?_

_'Cause I'm gonna be out on the town_

_As long as you are goin' there with me_.”

When the confusion had settled, Harry smiled and answered yes, he would very gladly go to Hogsmeade with Draco.

That weekend was the best Hogsmeade weekend Draco had ever had. He and Harry went through the village and talked and looked at the shops. It was like it had been when Harry stayed at the Manor before their third year, and Draco thrived in it. If he could decide, he would make them stay there forever, in this exact day, for it was so great. Even though they didn’t only talk about good things — how could they with the threat of the Dark Lord hanging in the air? — it was still great to spend the day alone with Harry, doing nothing in particular. They ate lunch together in a private booth at Three Broomsticks and then stayed in there for the rest of the afternoon, while just continuing to talk about everything and nothing.

“Hey, Dray,” Harry said when they were on their way back to the castle. “Can you promise me something?”

“Hmm, what?”

“When you get home to… your home, and it’s really bad with… you know… you promise that you’ll try to escape right? And that you’ll tell me if that happens. You can always come and live at Grimmauld Place.”

“Harry, nothing’s gonna happen. But yes, I promise.” Draco snuck an arm around Harry’s shoulders and hugged him sideways. “I promise, if you promise that you’ll eat enough this summer.”

A small, uncertain smile appeared on Harry’s face as he nodded, but he couldn’t quite meet Draco’s eye, and it worried the blond a lot. He squeezed Harry’s shoulder before he tried to change the subject into the upcoming feast that was only a few days away.

Draco knew that his promise wasn’t very reassuring, for he had no idea what was going on with his father. All he knew was that Cedric and Harry had seen him at the assembly in the graveyard, wearing the same black robes as the other Death Eaters. It was something that scared Draco slightly, but he was certain that his father wouldn’t hurt him, and if he did try to touch Draco, his mother would interfere. So there wasn’t really anything to worry about, was it?

Those worries clouded Draco’s thoughts as well as Harry’s during the Ending Ceremony, so neither of them noticed who won the House Cup this year either.

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as Draco stepped off the Hogwarts Express to begin his summer break, he knew something was wrong. His mother wasn’t there to greet him. Instead there was only a house elf, Tipsy, that asked him to follow her. Desperately, he waved goodbye to Harry as he hurried after the elf. Draco barely had time to catch up with her at the Apparition point before he was transported into the hallway of Malfoy Manor with a snap of her fingers. 

The first thing Draco noticed was how dark it was. Usually, the Manor was grand and lit with sunlight and candles and whatever its inhabitants’ magic could create. But now it was completely dark, as if the sunrays didn’t quite managed to filter through the wall-sized windows. As he pondered this, he put notice into how quiet it was. There was no music, no talking, no sounds of steps hurrying over the floor boards to greet him. 

Carefully, he tiptoed through the hallway, making sure he didn’t make a sound as he made his way forward. It wasn’t until he neared the dining hall that he heard muffled voices. He quietly went to the door but just as he was to open it, something dragged him backwards violently. He turned to snarl at whoever had assaulted him but bit his tongue when he saw that it was his mother. As he opened his mouth to ask her about all this, she shook her head and motioned with her hands that he must keep quiet and follow her. Hurriedly, but still silently, they escaped into Draco’s wing. Narcissa cast several locking and privacy spells at the door and suddenly the seriousness of all this struck Draco heavily. 

“Mom…” he piped up, letting his fear be immensely heard in his voice. Narcissa instantly threw her arms around him and pulled him close.

“It’s okay,” she murmured. “It’ll be okay. We’ll be fine.”

“Is… is dad… down there?” Draco asked, and Narcissa nodded in response. “Does he _want_ to be there?” This was crucial for Draco to know, for it was all he had to grasp at so that he could still believe in his father’s good sides. This time, Narcissa didn’t answer immediately though. It took several minutes until she whispered that she didn’t know.

“I’m sorry, darling, I don’t know… I know he wanted to be there before, in the time before the Potters supposedly vanquished him… but now I’m not sure. I don’t know if he wants to be there anymore.”

Draco nodded numbly. “Okay… but what about me? What… what do they want from me? I don’t want to be there.”

“Of course not! You are _not_ going to be there, ever. Mark my words!”

“But what if they try? Would you… well… Harry said that… if something happened, I could come to his godfather’s place… would you let me? Go there, I mean.”

“Draco, darling, of course I’d let you escape if they ever tried to gain on you. Don’t you worry about that.” She hugged him closely. After a while of thinking she added: “And I also think that going to Sirius’ house might be a good idea nonetheless if they’ve done anything or not. How about you and I going for a vacation this summer? To London?” Draco smiled into his mother’s shoulder and mumbled his approval. 

They only stayed in the manor for two days. During that time, they packed everything they thought they’d need as well as things they thought held too much value to be in the presence of the Dark Lord for a longer time. Yet, those days were also enough time for them to realise that the Death Eaters actually had quite a lot planned for Draco. Several times a day, they tried to approach him with devious smiles on their faces. Merlin, was Draco happy about his mother constantly being there to protect him. He was way too scared to stand up against them on his own. And oh, how much he missed Harry. Harry, whose presence always made Draco braver, stronger. And happier.

The very moment he and his mother apparated into London after telling Lucius about their summer plans, Draco ran to get to Sirius’ home. But it wasn’t there. There was no house with the number twelve on it as there should be. All the other numbers were there, but not number twelve. Confused, he turned to look at his mother who only smiled knowingly.

“Easy, darling, the house is protected by a Fidelius Charm. See: ‘The Safe Space of Sirius Black may be found at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.’” The moment she had uttered the last letter, a new house appeared in between the two with eleven and thirteen labeled upon them. Impressed, Draco watched the display with wide eyes. 

“Wow, that’s… cool.” he said, almost breathlessly. Then he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He ran towards the door and spurted in, only to collide with a man with long, black hair and grey eyes. The same eyes as he and his mother had. “Oh, I’m sorry… Sirius…” he said.

The man let out a rumbling laugh. “Don’t worry, pup, it’s all right. Welcome to our ancestral home.” He looked up and at the sight of Draco’s mother, he seemed to automatically gather himself and he approached her in the typical pureblood way Draco had been so used to see during his childhood. “Hello there, cousin. Welcome to… Number Twelve.” He struck out a hand for her to shake, but she just looked him deadly in the eye for a moment, before letting a smile crack her serious façade.

“No need to be so formal, cousin.” She wisped away his hand and threw her arms around him in a graceful hug instead. “I’ve missed you, you know. Since you ran away to Potter.”

“Well, hmpf,” Sirius snorted, “there wasn’t much else I could do. They were truly killing me off in here.”

“I know. I don’t blame you for doing it. I just wished it hadn’t been crucial for you to disappear.”

As if Draco was forgotten, the two Blacks made their way farther into the house, all the while trying to catch up on the years they’d been apart. Because of this, Draco took it upon himself to start explore the house. The room his mother and Sirius had disappeared into was the kitchen, and as Draco didn’t find that there was a lot to look up in there, so he went up the stairs instead. Most of the doors were locked, and based on the elf-head decorations that hung here and there and other details that spoke of the Black’s history, he didn’t find that very surprising or strange. Merely necessary and reassuring. Of the rooms that weren’t off limits though, he found several bedrooms and a parlour furnished with armchairs and sofas arranged around a rather cosy fireplace. Furthermore, he also found a library and it was inside that room that he found Remus Lupin. 

“Oh, hi there, Draco,” the man greeted him as he entered. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” Draco said curtly, but when Remus only looked at him meaningly he added, “with the circumstances being what they are, I’m as good as I can be.” 

“Hm, yeah, that I can understand. I suppose it would’ve been better if Harry was here, but he won’t come here until next week.” At this, Draco looked at Remus weirdly. 

“Why  — why is that? Where is he? I thought he said he wouldn’t go to the Burrow until the end of the summer.”

“Well, yes, but he’s not with the Weasleys. He’s at his relatives’ place. I suppose you don’t know the entire story about Harry’s prophecy? Of course you don’t, not even Harry knows. I still think it’s stupid of Dumbledore to — oh, I’m rambling. All right. If you promise to not tell Harry, or at least not tell him everything, I can tell you the story?”

Instead of answering with a yes, Draco simply made his way into the library and sat down on a green sofa and looked expectantly at Remus. The older man shook his head with a smile, before he cleared his throat and began then to tell. 

Afterwards, Draco was out of himself with rage. The world was so unfair! And Dumbledore! How dare he act like… like… like Harry was a puppet!? It was absolutely absurd! The moment Remus had quietened, Draco had rushed down to his mother and Sirius and started to yell at them about how all this wasn’t okay, that Harry didn’t deserve it. It took them all day to calm him down. When the rage had settled, Draco had collapsed onto the floor and started crying uncontrollably. 

“So, so, darling, easy now,” his mother kept mumbling softly as she drew circles on his back with her hands. 

“I suppose Re told you about the prophecy and all that?” Sirius asked when Draco’s sobs were less violent. 

“Yes, and I know I shouldn’t tell Harry about it. I won’t. It’ll break him, and I don’t want that. But it’s so… unfair!” Draco sobbed.

“I know. It’s bloody horrible. But for me, at least I’m glad that he’s got such wonderful friends as you and Ron and Hermione. Now I know he’s not going through this alone.”

“Of course he’s not alone. But sometimes it feels like he doesn’t realise I’m here for him. He’s so stubbornly settled on staying alone. And I don’t even know why? Why would someone keep believing they are alone when they have friends standing right next to them?”

At this, Sirius hesitated. “I — I think that’s his story to tell. Partly because I don’t even know half of that story, but mostly because that’s something he must choose to tell.”

“What? What story?”

“His childhood. His relatives. The ones he has to stay with for a couple of weeks every summer to keep the love bond intact. But as I said, I’m not the right person to tell you about that. Harry is. Now, I have something entirely different to ask you. You know that the Quidditch League is here in London in a few weeks. We missed the World Cup last year so I thought you and I and Re and Harry could go to the League this year instead. But only if you want to, of course?”

The change of topic had Draco slightly dizzy, but soon he was smiling back at Sirius and nodded before saying a very earnest thank you. 

As Draco waited for Harry to arrive, he spent the days reading books with Remus, learning more about his lycanthropy and planning how he was to approach Harry about his childhood. These plans, however, disappeared completely when Harry arrived through the Floo and Draco got to see him. He had known that he had missed Harry these past weeks, but the weight of that misery tripled now that he could see him. Without missing another beat, Draco bolted through the room and flung himself around Harry.

“You’re here!” he said into Harry’s neck as he sagged against his body, relieved to be touching him at last. 

“Yes I am, Draco, I am here.” Harry answered and hugged Draco back. “But I didn’t know you were going to be here. You didn’t tell me that in your letters.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“And what a surprise it was. Thank you.”

They detangled themselves from each other so that Harry could be greeted by the others, but when they turned around, they noticed that Sirius, Remus and Narcissa had left them alone in the room. The realisation of what that might mean dawned upon the two boys at the same time and they promptly refused to look at each other as they blushed. Slightly embarrassed, they left the parlour and Harry showed Draco which of the bedrooms was his. 

As soon as Harry had packed up all his things they continued over to Draco’s room, which was conveniently next to Harry’s (it wasn’t at all because Draco had guessed what room was Harry’s and then had chosen the closest room he could find). They sat down on Draco’s bed and, just like how they spent most of their time together, they talked and bickered. It was so natural, and Draco found himself relaxing completely for the first time since he left Hogwarts. When Remus called them down for dinner, they had somehow ended up laying next to each other, with their arms pressed against each other. And they’d fallen asleep like that. When Sirius went up to see what kept them from coming down, he found the two of them looking so content on the bed he didn’t dare wake them up. Instead, he quietly closed the door and let them be.

Draco awoke curled up against Harry’s chest, and more at ease than he could remember he had ever been. 

“ _Yeah and my head keeps spinnin'_

_You got me trippin'_

_There's something about the way you move_

_Yeah, every little single thing you do is like_

_One part angel and one part danger_

_But, oh, the kind of crazy I like_

_You got me losing my mind_

_I'm losing my mind_!” Draco murmured as he unintentionally let his hand go up and stroke a strand of hair behind Harry’s ear. The moment his fingers trailed against Harry’s skin felt enchanting, yet it was nothing like the thrill Draco got from pushing them through his soft locks of hair. 

“Hm, that’s nice…” Harry suddenly murmured, causing Draco to jump apart from him. “For Merlin's sake Draco, come back… it was nice and…” Sigh. “I don’t want to get up yet…”

Slowly, the meaning of Harry’s words dawned upon Draco. Swallowing down his anxiety, he tentatively moved his hand back to Harry’s hair and started to massage his scalp carefully. It drew another content sigh out of Harry. 

“Sirius told me about the Quidditch match he’s invited us to.” Draco said after a while and earned approving humming in response from the other boy. “And I was thinking… if you want to… we could turn it… into a date..?”

At this, Harry threw his eyes wide open and stared at Draco with glimmering green irises. 

“Really?! You… you want to go to a date… with me?”

“No, I want to go with Black, to keep our pure-blooded tradition of inbreeding going. Of course I want to go with you, dumbass.”

The smile that divided Harry’s face at this went from ear to ear and his eyes seemed more alive than Draco had ever seen before. 

“It’s a date, then.” Harry concluded. “But… does that mean… that we’re boyfriends?”

Draco hadn’t even thought about it that way yet. Of course, he had thought about the two of them being boyfriends, but not now, not because he wanted to make the Quidditch game a date. Yet, just thinking the word in association with Harry and himself had him feel jelly-legged, despite laying down in bed. 

“Yes,” he breathed. “It does.”

Even though it should be impossible, the smile on Harry’s face got even wider at this and Draco found himself leaning in to press his own smile against Harry’s.

He drew back quite quickly though. The kiss was utter bliss, and Draco loved the feeling of Harry’s lips against his own, but this was not something he had planned to do. Harry didn’t give him time to evaluate what had happened any further though, for he too moved his hand to place it on Draco’s cheek before leaning back for another kiss. 

They were interrupted some time later by two knocks on the door (Draco had lost all sense of time, so they could’ve been going two minutes as well as two hours). Through the closed door, Sirius’ voice sounded as he told them about breakfast being served in the kitchen. A few minutes later, they were all gathered in the same room, eating while planning the upcoming days. It got settled that today they would simply enjoy some peace and quiet as it had been decided since some time back that the Weasleys were coming over the next day and they all knew that that meant a lot of energy was required. Together, all of them decided that they were going to go to do several Muggle activities. It would be interesting for Sirius, the Weasleys and the Malfoys to learn more about them, and for Harry and Remus, it was a pleasure to return back to the Muggle world once in a while. 

When all that had been settled, Harry and Draco made their way to the parlour with some books. They snuggled up together in the corner of one of the coaches before starting to read quietly. Draco had merely gotten through a couple of chapters before a cheerful comment was heard from outside the door.

“I _knew_ it, come on Cissy, I told you so!” It only took the boys a few seconds before they realised that Sirius was talking about them. Draco rolled his eyes as Harry smiled knowingly. Of course the adults had been discussing their relationship, but wasn’t that to be expected by one’s guardians? A vicious smile suddenly took place on Draco’s lips and he whispered quietly for Harry to kiss him. As Harry did so, Draco flipped a bird towards the door. For a moment, he relished in the triumphant feeling he got from the collective gasp that was heard, but he soon forgot all about it as he got too busy with exploring Harry’s mouth.

Similar to how Harry constantly felt wonderous towards magic, Draco seemed stunned by everything Muggle he was shown. He fell in love with the zoo they visited and he would always love to walk hand in hand with Harry through the beautiful parks they went to. It was even better because it got on Ron’s nerves to see them so… in love. He didn’t have anything against them being together, quite the contrary, he was happy for them. But did they really have to be like that all the time?! When he asked about it though, Harry just laughed and said that he’d get his chance to get back on him soon enough. The look he gave Ron with that comment made it seem like he knew something Ron didn’t and it nagged Ron to death. 


	3. Chapter 3

The very best Muggle thing though, in Draco’s opinion, was the movies and the cinema. It was cozy and comfortable. The movies were great and best of all, he could sit close to Harry and experience it all with him. And if he wanted to steal a kiss in the dark, he could just do so. He could almost pretend they were alone in the cinema. It was marvelous. 

Even after the Weasleys had returned home to the Burrow, Draco and Harry continued with their adventures in Muggle London. It was interesting for Harry as well, to experience the things he only had heard about through Dudley’s tales before. 

Only a week before the Quidditch League match, their trip to another blooming park came to an urgent stop when they accidently happened upon two Muggles being assaulted by Dementors. Thanks to Remus training them during the summer, both boys knew how to produce their Patronuses. The problem though, was that once the Dementors were gone, they stood by two ice cold and shivering Muggle bodies that they didn’t know what to do with. In the end, they decided to try to carry them back to Grimmauld Place and let the adults deal with it. 

It took some time though. They had gotten quite far away from home and to carry two bodies made them walk quite a lot slower. About an hour later, they were back at last and they stumbled onto the porch. Before Harry even got the opportunity to knock on the door, it swung open and revealed a furious looking Sirius staring down at them.

“What the bloody hell do you two think you’re doing, casting magic amongst Muggles?!” he shouted. Shocked, the two boys stared up at him with wide eyes and open mouths. “We got this about forty minutes ago!” Sirius continued and held forth a letter with a cracked seal of the Ministry of Magic. “What have you gotten to say in your defence?”

“A lot.” Draco said as he was the first one to compose himself. “But I’m not going to explain anything while standing on your porch. So can you let us in? The Muggles on the street are getting a bit too curious.”

His words seemed to make Sirius realise that there actually was a reality around the three of them and he hurriedly stepped aside so they could walk in. And it wasn’t until then that he noticed the two bodies they were carrying.

“What  — they said you cast Patronuses. Why do you have two bodies?” he asked.

“That’s what we need your help with,” Harry answered. “They were attacked by Dementors and we don’t know what to do with them.”

“DEMENTORS?!” Sirius shouted. “Why would there be Dementors in London?”

“Hell should we know,” Draco snapped. “Where’s Mother? I want to talk to her.”

“She and Re went out like ten minutes ago to go search for you two. We all got quite worried when the letter arrived.”

“Yeah, what is that letter anyways?” 

“From the Ministry. Giving you two a warning about improper use of magic. One more fault and you’ll be tried at court.” Sirius answered bitterly. “But if you tell me what happened we can go to the Ministry tomorrow and sort it all out. So come on. Spill.”

So they did, as soon as they’d put the Muggles in a bed each and then settled down in the kitchen. It was a short story to tell, but still, it rose a lot of questions that proved very hard to answer and they were still discussing it when Remus and Narcissa returned. The three of them repeated the story once again for them.

“Merlin forbid that we sit here waiting until tomorrow,” Narcissa said promptly when they were done. “We’re going there right now. This letter they sent us is ridiculous.”

They did what she said after a short further discussion. The trip didn’t go quite as planned though. They had thought that a simple discussion with those responsible, along with the proof they had would clear the record, but no. Everyone seemed to be busy with something else. And most of the witches and wizards they met fired a disgusted look at Harry and it wasn’t until someone spat something about him spreading lies about You-Know-Who being back that they understood why. 

It took about two hours before they got to request a proper meeting with someone that was connected to the Department for Improper Use of Magic, and then they had to wait for yet another two hours before that assembly started. It was evening by the time they all were settled in a meeting hall, and it quickly became obvious that the witch that they were talking to would rather be anywhere else. 

At last, Narcissa lost it. She dropped her neat façade and let her rage be shown. The show she put on made Harry promise himself that he never was going to anger his boyfriend’s mother. When she was mad, she was bloody frightening. And it seemed to do the trick, for the witch suddenly seemed to find several ways to solve their little problem. Ten minutes later, they were free to go and both Harry and Draco’s records were clean.

The day didn’t end when they came home though, for when they arrived at Number Twelve, another argument had appeared. The Quidditch League. Neither Narcissa nor Remus wanted them to go to the match anymore, and while Sirius more than understood the young boys’ desire to go, he also agreed with the other two adults that it might be best to save the trip for another time.

Apparently, the day had had too much of an affect on Draco, for he followed his mother’s footsteps and lost it. 

“There might not be ‘another time’” he shouted. “You all know what Harry’s supposed to do and you all know that _he_ is back. Hell, I wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t already a dangerous threat. So there might not be another time that I get to…” at this, tears started to run down Draco’s cheeks and a sob heaved through him. “There might not be enough time for us to… go to another match together… and it was supposed to be a d- date. I just… I thought that Harry could… get to experience it because… his prophecy…” 

All too late did Draco realise that he had mentioned the prophecy in front of Harry. But he found that he didn’t care. All he knew in that moment was that the world was too unfair and too cruel to Harry and that he did not deserve the adults to be cruel as well. He drew in a deep breath, turned around and left the room with a bang of the door. He retreated to his room and laid down on his bed, letting the sobs take the better of him. The day had left so much tension in his body and he needed to get it all out. When he felt Harry crawling onto the bed he blindly turned to bury his face in the other boy’s neck.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to snap. But it’s so unfair. All of this. And —”

“Sssh,” Harry hushed. “It doesn’t matter. Just calm down. Please, I hate to see you this hurt. Is there something I can do?”

“Stay. Just stay.” Draco said and let himself relax against Harry’s body.

“Okay. I will.” He heard Harry say right before he fell asleep. 

It seemed like Draco’s outburst did help the two boys, for a day before the match Remus approached them while they sat in the library reading and told them that the trip would be carried out after all. While euphoric, they quickly assembled everything they thought they’d need for the match and got ready as much as they could, because they’d leave early the next morning and then stay there for two days. 

The matches they saw sure was an experience. Both Draco and Harry kept close watch on the Seekers to see if they could learn some new tricks and develop their techniques and skills. It was one of the best days in Harry’s life (though it certainly did not beat the day when he became Draco Malfoy’s boyfriend). After the last match of that night, the four wizards made their way away from the stadium. But just as soon as they were to step off the warded area, an explosion was heard and they turned back just in time to see a mark paint the dark sky. A mark that they all recognised as the Death Eaters’ Dark Mark. Remus and Sirius instantly stood rigid and watched the mark with scarily white faces. Harry nudged them in the sides a short while later and it brought Remus back to sanity.

“All right, boys, it’s well past time for us to leave now. Come on, let’s hurry.” But just as he started to turn, another mark was shot into the sky. It was a mark made by a deer’s antlers circling a moon, a star and a sun. “PETER!” Remus shouted and in less than a second he had bolted back towards the Quidditch Pitch, with Sirius following closely behind. Without missing a beat, Harry and Draco kicked off after them. 

What they saw when they caught up with Sirius and Remus wasn’t all too pleasant. On the ground a blond witch laid lifeless and next to her was Peter Pettigrew. He was alarmingly thin and he was covered with still wet blood on the left side of his neck. It was clear that he was very weak and it was essential that he got medical help _now_.

Without hesitation, Remus kneeled down on the ground in front of Peter and drew his wand.

“Moony, no.” Peter coughed, causing blood to flow out of his mouth. “I don’t deserve —”

“Shut up, Pete. That’s not true and you know that. We know that. Now just let me heal you.”

Remus murmured spell after spell and colour seemed to seep back into Peter’s face the more time that went by. Yet, it was hard to look at all the wounds, and Draco felt quite sick from it.

“Come on, pups. Let’s get out of here.” Sirius murmured close to their ears. “Re will take care of this. He will make sure that they take Pete to St Mungo’s and then he’ll be fine. We don’t have to stay here. Let’s go home.” It was clear that Sirius didn’t like to look at this either, and he was as eager as the two younger boys to leave. 

Two weeks later, it was Harry’s birthday, and conveniently enough, that was also the day that the mediwitches and mediwizards at St Mungo’s deemed Peter well enough to be allowed to leave. The reunion between him, Sirius and Remus was quite honestly the best present Harry could ever have gotten. Together with the birthday cake they ate that night, they all also got to hear the tale of Peter Pettigrew that had lead to the downfall of the Potters but also a temporary setback for the Dark Lord. Then how he had been imperiused and tortured into making his return happen. And then he’d been used for target practice until they decided to drop him off. The story was utterly horrid and Draco shivered at the thought that it could’ve happened to him if he hadn’t escaped. Though he was quite fed up with talk about Death Eaters, there was still a question that nagged his mind.

“I —” he started but had to clear his throat for his voice didn’t quite bear with him. “I’m wondering… about my father…”

Peter instantly looked sad at this. “I’m sorry, Draco,” he began and Draco’s heart sank. Even though he wasn’t expecting that his father had left the dark side behind, he had certainly hoped so. “I haven’t seen Lucius for a long time. He wasn’t at any of the latest meetings and he never took part in my… in my torture. Some spoke about him running away but I don’t know about that. Most of them were careful with talking too loudly around me. I wasn’t really part of the company.”

A flare of hope sparked inside Draco. His father could be on the run! Perhaps he wasn’t falling back to be the Death Eater he once had been. Based on the hidden smile on Narcissa’s face, Draco knew she thought the same. But they didn’t let out their thoughts that night. It had already been a long day and it was Harry’s birthday and they didn’t want to spoil that. Also, Draco had something he still wanted to give Harry as a last present.

With a smug smile, Draco let Harry know this as he took his hand and dragged him towards his bedroom. Harry followed him nervously.

“Hey Dray, I hope you’re not planning on… you know… because I don’t think I’m ready…”

It took a while for Draco to realise what Harry meant, but as soon as he did he turned around and met Harry with a steady gaze. “Oh, no, Harry, that’s not what I meant. I know you’re not ready. I’m not either. But this is nothing like that. This present is something material. But it’s still… private. And I didn’t want the others to see you getting it.”

“Oh, all right. That’s good. Thank you…”

Draco gave him a sly smile before turning to his writing desk and pulling out one of the drawers to retrieve a small package.

“I know it might seem extreme, but I want you to know that this is not what it seems to be.” Draco said. “When you’ve opened this, you have to let me explain what it means, okay?”

Harry cast a curious and slightly anxious look at Draco, but nodded and accepted the present into his hands. He sat down on the bed as he slowly peeled off the neatly wrapped paper and retrieved a small box covered in black velvet. He flicked the top open and his eyes fell upon a beautiful, elegant ring. It was silver with small black carvings in it that created intricate decorations on its band and then disappeared into a very small, green jade stone. 

“All right, just so you know,” Draco began, “this is not an engagement ring. But it does carry some special value, for it is a family treasure and it is only handed down through those generations when the Malfoy heir chooses their partner rather than when they’re being forced into marriage or their relatives choose their partner for them. It is a gift given to show that I appreciate you, love you, and trust you, and it’s supposed to mean that I want to stay with you. But it does not carry the same promises as an engagement ring does. Also, I know it’s not much, but I thought that the meaning was true and I wanted you to know that this is what I feel and- wait, are you crying?”

Harry let out a strangled chuckle at this, before answering with a thick voice. “This is literally the nicest thing someone has ever given me. It’s beautiful in itself and then you go and say all those things and I don’t understand.”

“What do you not understand?”

“One is how it could be possible to love someone as much as I love you and second, how you can feel like this towards me. It’s… that has never happened before…”

Harry’s words reminded Draco of what Sirius had said earlier that summer about Harry not having the greatest childhood.

“Well, I do feel like this.” Draco said and reached to put the ring onto Harry’s finger. “And… now I’m gonna ruin the moment… because I want to ask you something. About… well, Sirius mentioned that there is a story I need to hear from you… about… your relatives and your childhood.”

Harry let out a sigh and leaned back until he was laying sprawled on the bed. “All right, I’ll tell you. But then you have to tell me what you meant with the prophecy the other night.”

Draco hesitated for a while. He had promised Remus not to tell Harry anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary, and he didn’t want to break that promise. And he didn’t want to let Remus down. But on the other hand, most of what he had been told _was_ necessary for Harry to know and it wasn’t right of them all to keep the information from him. So he nodded and agreed to Harry’s proposal, though he made a mental note to only bring out the most essential things. For Remus’ sake. 

What Harry told him was not what Draco had expected. He had known that it would be a tough story, that much he had gathered from everyone’s dark approach on the matter, but he had not known it would be _this_ bad. And he certainly hadn’t counted with it causing so many mixed emotions swirling around inside him, making it hard for him to stay put on his bed next to Harry. There was sadness, for it was a truly sad situation. There was raging anger, for how did those Muggles dare do this to Harry?! To anybody?! There was confusion, for how could Harry be so pure if he had been this neglected all this life? There was fear, for what if Draco accidentally made something wrong that triggered Harry because of his childhood trauma? And then there was determination, for Draco swore to himself that he’d make sure no one ever treated Harry this badly again. 

The rage that bubbled inside Draco was hard to contain, and he found himself shaking from it. It took Harry lots of kisses and caressing hands before Draco calmed down enough to be sure that he wouldn’t run straight to Little Whinging and hex the Dursleys into oblivion. 

“Maybe we should wait with the prophecy…” Harry murmured softly. “I don’t think you and I need any more emotional tantrums today.” He pulled Draco into a firm hug and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you, Draco. This is the best birthday in my entire life, and that’s because you are here celebrating it with me.”

These words had the rest of Draco’s anger perished and he, finally, was able to relax.

“It was my pleasure, Potter. And ‘what can I say except you’re welcome?” he sang, causing them both to throw a fit of laughter. 


	4. Chapter 4

During the month that was left before the two boys were scheduled to leave for Hogwarts, all the inhabitants of Grimmauld Place worked on trying to find out where Lucius could be and what the wisest way to approach him would be. They didn’t know for sure that he really was trying to run away, or that he wasn’t truly on the dark side, so they couldn’t just go out and about and drag him to their hidden safe house. But if he was on the run, he probably needed help to keep himself unseen by other Death Eaters. 

The month passed by without any success with either a plan or finding out where Lucius was. Draco was quite distressed when they entered the Hogwarts Express, to say the least. Harry’s presence did make it better, but that was only for a fairly short time, because when they arrived at the castle, they had to go their separate ways. Harry watched the blond at the other side of the Great Hall, and saw how he was all tense and rigid and he snapped at every other word Pansy and Blaise said. Halfway through the Sorting Ceremony, he had had enough. With determined steps he made his way through the room, all the while everyone was staring quietly at him, and sat down promptly beside Draco.

“For Merlin’s sake, do carry on!” he snapped when the hall continued to be quiet for several minutes after he’d settled down. 

In the corner of his eye, he saw Filch starting towards the Slytherin table, no doubt to shout at Harry about the rules before dragging him out of the hall to serve him some detention. But, to his great surprise, he was stopped by no other than Professor Snape. No one else seemed to notice, though, for they were either focusing on McGonagall and the Sorting, or on Harry himself. Ignoring the looks, he turned and laid all his attention on Draco.

“Hey, Dray, you need to relax a bit…” he said as he took Draco’s hand in his and started to draw circles with his thumb.

“I _am_ relaxed,” Draco snapped, causing Pansy to snort into her hands as she tried to stifle her laughter.

“All right, if you say so.” Harry said, knowing there was no use in arguing with the other boy. Then he leaned in and whispered. “It’s okay that I came here, right?”

Draco immediately sighed into Harry’s frame when he felt Harry’s breath at his skin and he actually did start to relax slightly. Forgetting about where they were, Harry smiled and pressed a chaste kiss on the side of Draco’s head before placing his head on his shoulder. It wasn’t until he saw Blaise’s baffled face that he realised that no one but the Weasleys knew about their relationship and that this must be a huge shock to everyone else. But he just raised an eyebrow mockingly at the Slytherin boy and let a smirk be shown on his lips. Then he focused on the Ceremony and didn’t let any of the looks shot his way bother him. He was with Draco and that was all that mattered. 

A week later, Draco was sat in one of the couches in Slytherin Common Room in the middle of the night when Pansy found him there. Worried, she sat down beside him and asked what’s wrong, but he didn’t even get to respond before she said ‘Potter’ and answered the question herself. He nodded. She sighed.

“You two really are something, aren’t you? You are completely wrecked for him and yet, you’re only fifteen years old.”

“I know. It’s scary, but I can’t help it, can I?”

“I suppose not. But now, tell me why Potter’s bothering you into insomnia.”

“It’s… it’s not really his fault… just… when I am here and he is there, I miss him. You know he and I spent almost all summer together?”

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned it. A couple of times. Every other ten minutes. Every day. All week.”

“I have not!”

“All right, no you haven’t. But it feels like you’re either with him or talking about him all the time so…”

“I’m sorry… I didn’t realise…”

“Of course you didn’t. But honestly, I think it’s rather cute. You’re totally smitten. And I’m glad to see you found him.”

Draco nodded and started to explain how he was thinking about Potter so much, and he was so used to having him right next to him, it’s painful to not have him all the time now. At some point, he forgot that he was talking to Pansy, as he imagined that he was telling it all to Harry.

“ _It's getting hard to sleep_

_Getting hard to think 'bout much these days_

_'Cause everywhere I go_

_Only thing I see is your glowing face_

_And the way you light up every room you walk into_

_Just makes me want to scream._ ” he said.

“Draco, darling, please, you’re talking to me, Pansy, not Potter.” Pansy interrupted, making Draco blush when he realised what had happened. 

“Sorry.”

“Maybe you can go talk to him? I’m sure he’ll give you their password so you can go sleep in his bed or something.”

“Yeah, but there’s another problem… I can’t tell you all about it, because it’s classified, but it is about You-Know-Who, and I’m constantly worrying about him. And I know Harry doesn’t want me to be so worked up about him, and I don’t want to let him down.”

“All right but…” Pansy started, but quieted as she thought about it. “But doesn’t it makes it all worse for you if you are here and he is in the other side of the castle? Don’t you worry more then?”

“Yeah but —”

“And I think I know Potter enough to know that he’d beat himself bloody if he knew you couldn’t sleep because of this. He would have wanted you to come to him and talk with him. He wants to understand you. And I think that he’s already quite good at it, that much was showed during the Feast when he saw how you distressed you were from the other side of the Great Hall. I mean, that room is huge, and you two sit on opposite sides of it, yet he noticed you. But he doesn’t know you as a Slytherin student in the Slytherin rooms. He doesn’t know that you sit up at night thinking and worrying about him. Maybe you should let him know so that he can help you?”

“But I don’t want him to help me. I’m not a bloody charity case, Pans.”

“No, you’re not. But I saw the ring on his finger, darling. And I know what it means. I also know what it means that he accepted it, even though you maybe don’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Harry Potter never wears anything fancy. He never has anything of a high value if you count by galleons. He only wears simple clothes, he only looks with shining eyes at things that seem like trash to others. He only values things in sentimentality. That’s why he doesn’t accept chocolate boxes from other students. That’s why he accepted the broom he got in first year. But he didn’t accept the fancy Potions kit that some third year offered him. And he accepted that ring from you. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he takes up his hand and studies the ring at least fifty times during Binns’ class. He values that ring _so_ much despite being what could be a stupid rich man’s gift. I know it isn’t like that, and apparently Harry does too, but you see my point, right?”

“I suppose I do…” Draco answered dreamily. “You mean to say that he…”

“He’s as much in love with you as you are with him. And I’m sure he would like to know about you thinking about him, no matter how sappy it may sound. And he would certainly like you to come and share his bed. So just ask him. Okay? But maybe wait until tomorrow. Tonight, you and I can sleep here.”

Pansy drew out her wand and quickly accioed hers and Draco’s blankets. They settled down on the sofa until they laid there comfortable enough to fall asleep within the next two minutes.

Harry met them at breakfast the next morning, and sat down with them at Slytherin table. Though Draco knew he should be more certain about the situation after his talk with Pansy, since he now knew what he should do, he couldn’t help but feel more twitchy than before. Of course, this didn’t go unnoticed to the Gryffindor and as soon as they left breakfast together, Harry dragged him into an empty hallway and asked what’s the matter. Draco took a deep breath before starting to explain the same things he had told Pansy that night. 

“So what you are trying to say is that you… miss me and want to spend more time with me and can’t sleep without me…?”

“ _Yeah and my head keeps spinnin'_

_You got me trippin'_

_There's something about the way you move_

_Yeah, every little single thing you do is like_

_One part angel and one part danger_

_But, oh, the kind of crazy I like_

_You got me losing my mind_

_I'm losing my mind!_ ” Draco said.

“Oh, thank Merlin, then I’m not the only one!” Harry exclaimed and planted a quick kiss on Draco’s cheek before flinging his arms around him in an almost bone-crushing hug.

“You… think the same?” Draco asked tentatively, and when Harry only nodded in response, he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips. “Great! But… now we’ve missed half of History… because of this talk… what do you think…”

“I’m sure Binns won’t notice if we sneak in now, and I suppose we can let the crowds think whatever they want to think.” Harry answered with a wink and then took Draco’s hand and they ran together to the classroom. 

Even though they had settled that, their school year didn’t seem to become much better. For after their History of Magic lesson came Defence Against the Dark Arts. Since Mad-Eye Moody had decided that he didn’t want to stay at the teacher post after the previous year’s events, they now had a Ministry employee as a teacher. Dolores Umbridge. And she was completely horrible. They didn’t have any practical lessons at all, and she seemed to be set on drawing blood from Harry and Draco for she always snapped at them. They had only had her for a week, but they already felt done with her for good. Harry snapped at her one time too many as she mouthed off Hermione for being too much of a know-it-all, and in the same sentence Umbridge disparaged Ron for spending so much time with her. In consequence for speaking up for his friends and their special relationship that should be cherished, Harry had landed himself a suspension from all the year’s Quidditch matches as well as detention. Detention that would be going for an undecided amount of time according to the pink paper she gave him. 

When Harry returned from detention that night, he stifly told Draco, Ron and Hermione about the blood-drawing quill he had been forced to use to write _‘criminals must be punished.’_ They were all horrified to hear that, but Harry didn’t let them fuss over him because of it. He just asked Draco to come with him and then made his way to his dormitory. In bed, Draco felt how extremely tense Harry truly was and he started to massage his back without asking questions. The very moment Draco worked through the last tension in Harry’s lower back, the latter let out a content sigh before whispering a breathy thank you. Draco crawled up to spoon Harry and whispered ‘no problem’ back, but Harry didn’t hear it because he was already asleep. 

The next night, Umbridge had him once again write lines with the blood quill, though, since he had mouthed her off about the Dark Lord and then about Malfoys, she had changed the line into _‘I must not tell lies and criminals must be punished.’_ When he returned, he promptly ignored Ron and Hermione and determinedly made his way into his bedroom where Draco was waiting. Harry showed him the new, bloody words that started to get carved into the back of his hand. Draco only looked at them for a few seconds before he turned all his attention to Harry’s face and kissed him. He kissed him on his left temple, then on his right. Proceeding to kiss the top of his nose, he watched as the trembles that went through Harry’s body vanished. Lastly, he let his lips meet Harry’s and he kissed him deeply as he traced figures with his fingers on Harry’s collarbone. 

Harry managed to get through two more detentions before it became too much. Every night he came back to his dorm, collapsed onto the bed and let Draco do whatever came to his mind to make him calm down, but this night he only got through the door before he fell to the floor, sobbing. Draco noticed how the others in the room moved to go to him, but he quickly signed to Dean and Seamus that they could go back to sleep as he cast a silencing charm around him and Harry. Ron was still out with Hermione, planning something neither Draco nor Harry knew about yet. Well, Draco knew more than Harry because he knew they were planning something, but he had no idea what it was and he did not have the energy to figure out what it was either. He had his hands full with Harry.

“Ssh, love, easy… what happened?” Draco mumbled as he kneeled down and drew Harry closer to him. The only answer he got though, was Harry shaking his head and continuing to sob violently. Draco sat there for a while, pained by the sight of Harry being so broken. At last he spoke determinedly. “Harry, I won’t stand by this anymore. Tomorrow, the first thing we do after breakfast is going to McGonagall. Or Dumbledore. I don’t care who. But we’re gonna talk to them about this. This can not continue. Okay?”

Harry nodded and pulled at Draco’s night shirt, as if he was clinging onto it for dear life. Maybe he was. And that scared Draco more than anything ever had. For Harry had been abused almost all his life, but never broken down because of it, and now he had only encountered that lady for two weeks and he was holding onto Draco as if he was the only one that kept him alive. 

McGonagall went crazy when she saw the cuts on the back of Harry’s hand, and if that wasn’t enough, she was close to blowing up her entire office when Harry told her about the night before. Apparently, Umbridge had gathered every news article she could that cast Harry’s parents, Sirius, Draco and anyone else that Harry might care about in a bad light. This was the only thing Draco hadn’t been able to get Harry to tell the night before, and in the end, he hadn’t dared push further as he was afraid that Harry would break down again. 

In less than a minute she had called down every teacher in the castle except for Umbridge to discuss the matter. But in the middle of their meeting came a short knock on the door and without waiting for response, the witch in question entered. 

“Hem hem, what are all you doing here, may I ask?” she said. “And furthermore, what is that _Potter_ boy doing here? I know for a fact that he should be in _my_ class right now. After all, that’s why I came here. To talk to his Head of House.”

“We are here because of you assaulting our students.” McGonagall snapped. “And we do not tolerate that at Hogwarts.”

“Hem, hem, what was that? An accusation? What for? And what proof do you have?” Umbridge piped with her awfully tiring voice.

“ _This_ is what we’re talking about!” Flitwick interfered and pulled Harry’s scarred hand up in her face.

“Ah, that, may I say, is just what one would call crime and punishment. Harry was acting up in class —”

“He was not. He was asking a question,” Draco interrupted. “A question that several others had asked before him. But they didn’t get detention for that, nor did they get a scar. They didn’t get anything. Not even an answer.”

“And blood quills are not,” McGonagall continued, “to be used unless the Headmaster has approved of them, and since Albus has not been here he can’t have —” 

“Yes, exactly, professor,” the toad said. “He is not here so I couldn’t ask him. I had to take the matter in my own hands.”

“No, you did not. When the headmaster is gone, I am responsible for the school, which means you should’ve come to me,” McGonagall sputtered. “And, something as small as asking a question shouldn’t result in detention nonetheless! And if it does, then that detention surely isn’t so important that you have to proceed with it before getting the headmaster’s approval! You say you come from the Ministry to ‘straighten things up’ at this school, but yet you can’t seem to be able to follow the protocols and rules we have here. That is unacceptable. In fact, I believe the guidelines say that you only have one _minor_ misstep and you’ll be fired. Is that understood?!”

This was the first time that Umbridge ever had showed any other emotion than self satisfaction, and Draco must say, fear suited her quite well. At least then her face wasn’t completely pink.

“Dismissed.” Snape said in his normal, bitter voice, and waved the pink clad lady out of the room.


	5. Chapter 5

“Wow,” Draco said when the door closed behind her. 

“Hopefully that will be enough to keep her within some boundaries,” Snape said, “though you should not expect too much. Ministry people are slimy. And this one has a purpose which means she’s even more so.”

“Indeed,” Flitwick agreed. “Now, however, we do have an advantage. If she does _one_ more thing wrong, we can have her forced away. So boys, promise me that you’ll come to us the very moment she does something, okay? But do not provoke her into doing it, or the advantage will fall. Because if the next error of her side turns out to be a consequence of someone else’s doing, she’ll have enough authority to say this one was as well.”

“Yes, professor,” both students said at the same time. 

“Now, run along. Your next period will begin in a quarter of an hour, and you do not want to be late.” Snape said. Hurriedly, they did so, because they did not want to be late for Potions.

The next weeks did become better because no one was sent into detention anymore, and Umbridge’s rampaging with new rules came to an end, but they still didn’t get to practice any defence. This was especially alarming for those who took their N.E.W.T.s and O.W.L.s this year, and among them was Draco and all his classmates. One evening, right after dinner, Ron and Hermione joined Draco and Harry in the Gryffindor Common Room with the answer to this. 

Ron and Hermione explained how they had been thinking about how they could get away with practicing their defence and what else they found necessary for their upcoming tests without interfering with Umbridge and provoking her into something they did not want to happen. And at last they had come up with the solution. Excitedly, they started to explain their plans on a student body class that acted as a club out of the ordinary curriculum in which they practiced the spells and wand work they needed. Something they’d call Dumbledore’s army, D.A. for short, since they had gotten his approval through a written conversation.

It sounded like a good plan, Draco agreed, but he didn’t see how they would be able to practice something they had never done before without proper leadership and guidance from a teacher. And neither could he come up with a place for this supposed club to do said practice at. Or how to communicate with those who participated in the group without alarming Umbridge.. When he voiced these thoughts, the two Gryffindors sat opposite to him looked both smug and uncertain at the same time. However they managed that combination, Draco had no clue.

The expression turned out to be well fit for the situation though, for they did have a great idea on how to solve the problems, but it had one evident flaw. They had found out about the Room of Requirement earlier and they figured it could provide them with the necessary equipment as long as they asked for it, and Hermione had figured out a way to communicate through coins that they could hand out to everyone that was a part of the D.A.. And that was a solid solution to the place and communication problem. But the teacher problem did not have such a solid solution. Because they wanted Harry to be the teacher. 

Naturally, Harry did not like this. They all knew how much he hated to be the center of attention, and he already had enough attention as it was with people believing him to be a liar because of him voicing the return of the Dark Lord. He verbally fought against their plans with all arguments he could come up with, but Ron and Hermione constantly fired back rock solid counters, and at last, Harry did not have anything to say except reluctantly agreeing to it. 

After gathering a few well trusted people and getting some help from Remus about lesson planning, they met up in the Room of Requirement. Ron explained the situation and what the plan was for those who had come and after answering some rather uncomfortable questions, they all looked up at Harry with a new sort of awe. Everyone that came agreed to the rules, and signed the document Hermione had brought with her. 

Despite the reluctance Harry had felt before they started with the club, he found that he really liked teaching the others. It was fun to explain spells and amend people’s stances, and Harry loved to see how the students advanced to higher levels through every lesson. It even made him happier than the fact that the assembly grew more and more popular as more and more students joined them. There were a few chosen students that usually were more opposed towards Harry on a regular basis that they had to keep away from, but overall it went extremely well. Well enough to make Harry reconsider his earlier plans on becoming an Auror to instead apply for a teacher’s position somewhere. 

Another good thing that followed with D.A. was that everyone felt capable of enduring Umbridge’s unpleasantries for a longer time without letting it get on their nerves. And for some reason, this distressed her more than students who constantly sat quietly and obeyed her. She was sure they must be up to something. 

As it turned out, some of them were. At least, three people were. Fred, George and Lee let off quite a remarkable show when they one day, a week away from when the exams were due, set off all sorts of fireworks and other pranking materials they had developed during the year. In the byway, they told Harry their thanks for him funding their joke shop with his Tournament winnings and told all the students to come to the shop as they’d get to see all sort of things that they could use to get out of class or earn detentions for, on their way out of the castle. 

Other than that, the year continued rather easily, with lots of work and studying as preparation for their O.W.L.s and a couple of double dates, as Ron finally had caught up with Harry’s inquires and realised that he was in love with their friend and that she was in love with him as well. Things really seemed to calm down a bit and thanks to the pranksters’ show, Umbridge was more jittery than ever, which increased the students’ hope of her retiring from the teaching post as soon as the year was over.

During the feast it was announced that Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup, but neither Harry nor Draco heard who won the House Cup since they were too busy celebrating the end of the school year by sharing a passionate kiss.

* * *

During the summer between their fifth and sixth years, the Wizarding World in Britain grew a lot darker. Apparently, there had been an attempt at a break in in the Department of Mysteries, and when the Aurors had arrived to the place they had been met by the sight of a fight between Albus Dumbledore and no other than Voldemort. The Aurors’ memories were evaluated through Pensieves and at last, no one could doubt Harry’s words when he claimed the evil wizard to be back. 

Yet, there still wasn’t any news about Lucius’ whereabouts and the official activities of Death Eaters grew more common, as well as more violent and catastrophical. The dark times were very present inside Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, since the group called the Order of the Phoenix had decided to make the house their headquarters. 

The group consisted of most of Harry and Draco’s closest adult acquaintances. Sirius, Remus, Peter, the Tonkses, the Weasleys, Moody, McGonagall, Dumbledore and _Snape_. Though Harry had seen the Potion Master’s better sides during the past year, he still had a hard time believing that he was a part of their resistance group, someone that Dumbledore trusted so profoundly. 

It was great to know that there were people that fought for the same thing as Harry did. But it was also very frustrating because he was not allowed to join the Order yet, as he was not of age. He hated it because it made him feel like he was standing by them but not doing anything, just letting them fight his battle. Draco had told him about the prophecy after the break-in at the Ministry since they all knew that the Death Eaters had been there trying to steal exactly that. Now Harry knew what was expected of him and what he needed to do, so why didn’t they let him do more? Why did they keep him locked away like this? Had they ever heard about ‘knowledge is power’?

Apparently, he was not alone with these thoughts. Excluding the other adolescents that weren’t allowed in the Order, they also heard Sirius, Tonks, Remus and Snape muttering about it. But as it happened, these were orders from Dumbledore, and they trusted him enough to go against their own common senses.

Luckily, Draco and Harry were stuck in it together and it wasn’t very hard to find something to do. And once they got their book lists for the next year, they busied themselves with working through their summer homework as well as reading ahead a bit. Merlin’s beard, Harry had never studied ahead of something in his entire life and now he did so because _he was bored!_ If this wasn’t proof of the world heading for a apocalypse, then what could be?

Their sixth year did come to begin though, despite it at times seeming as if it wouldn’t. And with that came the news to Harry that Dumbledore was expecting him to attend a special class with him during the year. This both worried and enthralled Harry. But the excitement for it wasn’t really as great as the sadness that came with him realising it would mean that he couldn’t spend as much time with Draco. Though Draco understood Harry’s sentiment he did not agree with it. Instead he thought of the opportunities for new information that the meetings would enroll. And, he thought it really cute that Harry valued their time together more than that. 

As it turned out, Draco had been right in assuming those lessons meant that a lot more information got leaked to the younger ears. They got to learn about the Gaunts and about Riddle’s childhood. And after Draco and Harry together managed to gather the precious memory from Professor Slughorn, they also got to know that Dumbledore concluded that his fears about the Horcruxes were true. 

But once they had gotten to know about the Horcruxes, Dumbledore stopped to call Harry into his office. After a few days they also got to know that the headmaster had left the school for an unknown time and it irritated Draco to no end. He hadn’t escaped the dark side’s claws only to become a puppet of an old man and do whatever said man deemed necessary for his own good. No, he had run because he thought it was right. Right now, though, it seemed like both sides were equally mad, and Harry obviously agreed, for he shared Draco’s upset thoughts during their regular evening chats before bed. 

Most of that irritation disappeared though, when Dumbledore returned to the castle with new information, which he immediately shared with Harry and by that also with Draco, Ron and Hermione. He had found a place in which he believed there would be another Horcrux, and he asked Harry to come along with him. When Harry told Draco this, he had been very furious at first, because as usual, he easily became jealous. Harry proceeded to tell that he had declined the offer because he wouldn’t follow Dumbledore alone. If Dumbledore needed him, then he’d also arrange for Draco to come along. After some muttering, the headmaster had agreed. This made Draco happier than he cared to admit. 

It was only a day before exams were planned to start that an owl delivered them a letter with instructions to meet at the top of Astronomy Tower before afternoon classes began. Rather excitedly, the two boys readied themselves for what they supposed would be an interesting adventure during the rest of the day, since they were dismissed from classes. In the letter, it had said that Dumbledore required them to bring Harry’s invisibility cloak as well as their wands and warm, wind-enduring clothes. This left a lot of space for speculation of where they were going, and that’s what the two boys busied themselves with doing while they waited for time to tick by.

No matter how long they’d been sitting on the Astronomy Tower discussing the topic would they have managed to come up with the scenery they were met by when they’d Side-Alonged with Dumbledore onto a stone in the middle of a large, stormy lake. They didn’t dare complain about it, even though their silence probably told how much the settings of their whereabouts had shocked them. 

They followed Dumbledore, and against his better judgement, Draco let him and Harry follow every order they got from the elder man. He didn’t stop them from crossing the lake of inferi inside the cave, nor did he hinder Harry from feeding Dumbledore the watery potion in the makeshift beaker. And he helped as much as he could when they had to carry the man through the Fiendfyre on their way back. But when they returned to the castle and found the Death Eaters waiting, he bristled when the they asked him to kill the headmaster.

“Ah, Draco, _darlin’_ ,” Alecto Carrow mocked. “Please, do us a favour and prove yourself worthy of what your parents thought you could never be. Kill the old man and come and join us!”

But Draco refused — even when Dumbledore himself ordered Draco to kill him. He would not listen to any of them. He turned to Harry and looked deep into his eyes, hoping that his gaze would show enough of the panic that he felt inside his body. Harry nodded ever so slightly, and Draco knew he was the only one who saw it, because he was the only one who would be able to notice such a small action. They seemed to communicate wordlessly through that smallest of motions and Draco found courage inside himself he never would’ve thought he possessed. He straightened his back and made to draw his wand as he turned around. At first he pointed it towards Dumbledore and it looked like he was going to proceed with the deed both Dumbledore and the Death Eater expected of him. But in the very last moment he turned even more and aimed towards Alecto as he cast the most powerful stunning charm he had ever performed, quickly followed by a slicing charm that cut through her chest perfectly. At the same time as Draco did this, Harry jumped to stand next to Draco and cast the Killing Curse at Dumbledore. Right as Dumbledore fell from the tower, they saw motion in the corner of their eyes.

“NO!” shouted Snape as he ran to them. “No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening, this is what I wanted to prevent from happening, no, no, no…” he ranted as he kneeled at the edge of the tower. 

Confused, Draco and Harry edged closer to him, but they didn’t get much time to reassure the other man, for only a few moments later did more Death Eaters arrive at the landing. And opposed to Snape’s dejected shout, they started to cheer and yell happily for ‘the headmaster was finally dead!,’ while Harry, Draco and Snape hid under the Invisibility Cloak. As soon as the Death Eaters had left the tower, they emerged from under the fabric. With a thick voice, Snape informed them how the Death Eaters had come into the castle grounds through a paired Vanishing Cabinet, and that the school had been turned into a smaller battlefield ever since then.

“We’ve got to go down and help the others to fight!” Harry said sternly when Snape quietened. Before either Snape or Draco could answer or stop him, he was running down the staircase, wand drawn and face set in a bitter grimace. With no other option, Draco soon followed his boyfriend. When he’d descended the stairs he found Harry standing rigid on the porch leading out to the courtyard. At first, Draco feared that he had been hit by a stunning charm, but then he realised that the other boy was staring at what laid before him. It was Dumbledore’s lifeless body. No Death Eaters were in sight. Draco assumed that they had left as soon as they had confirmed that the Headmaster no longer lived. Tentatively, he placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder and pulled them slightly together.

“I did this…” Harry muttered, and Draco realised that the reality of it all must’ve dawned upon Harry all at once, shocking him into this state. “I… I killed him… I-”

Draco didn’t let him continue, for he turned Harry around so they faced each other and kissed him. What he hadn’t expected, though, was for Harry to quickly withdraw and taking a step back with a shaking head. 

“No, Draco, don’t do that. You shouldn’t be here. With me. I’m horrible… disgusting… you need to get away from me.”


	6. Chapter 6

Wide eyed, Draco stared at Harry as he muttered those words. Then he shook his head and placed his hands on Harry’s upper arms to hold him firmly. He looked deeply into Harry’s eyes as he told him how none of what Harry had said was true and how he still loved him as much as before, if not more. It helped only slightly. It was obvious that Harry still beat himself up about it mentally, but at least he stopped pushing Draco away. But it was Draco who had to retell the events they had gone through with Dumbledore when McGonagall and Snape asked, for Harry just stared down at the floor. 

Harry’s silence complicated the evaluating of the situation quite a lot though, for they could not know how it came that Harry meant the Killing Curse enough to actually cast it towards the headmaster. But it didn’t matter how many times they asked or who asked it, Harry refused to elaborate. At last, they gave up and let the two boys proceed to go to their dormitories. Naturally, they did not go their separate ways. Draco followed Harry to Gryffindor Tower without question, though they didn’t need to tell the professors about that. 

The next morning, the news about the previous day was announced during breakfast along with the information that the year’s exams had been cancelled due to said events. This left Draco and his friends a lot of time to discuss and plan the future in between all the meetings Harry and Draco were called into with McGonagall. They told both the teacher and their friends about the Horcruxes, since they no longer saw any reason for hiding the truth to those that wanted to help them. They told about the locket they had retrieved from the cave and about it being a fake Horcrux since Regulus Black had already stolen the real one and apparently managed to destroy it. 

Despite all the hours they spent discussing what to do, and that Draco knew that Harry was planning something he didn’t tell anyone about, he was surprised when Harry announced he would leave the school to go and search for the Horcruxes that were left to find and destroy. He didn’t miss a beat though, before he cut in to say that he would be going with Harry. He felt the other boy stiffen at this, and he instantly knew that Harry would argue about this once they had left the office. McGonagall didn’t seem to notice any of it, or she chose to ignore it, as she only answered with a sad voice that she understood. Then she proceeded to tell them that if there ever was something they required, they need only ask and she’d do whatever she could to provide them that. It was clear from her choice of words as well as the tone of voice she used that she truly wished the circumstances were not what they were for the two boys. 

When they exited McGonagall’s rooms, Harry did exactly what Draco had assumed he would do. He immediately dragged Draco off to an abandoned classroom and locked the door. 

“What the hell are you thinking Draco?!” he shouted the moment he had put a _Muffliato_ on them. “You can’t come with me! It’s too dangerous!”

“The hell are _you_ thinking, Potter?!” Draco countered loudly. “You can’t expect me to let you run off on this hunt on your own! As you said, it is dangerous, and even more so for you because you are you. _He_ is gonna have spies and Death Eaters on the search for you everywhere!”

“I know, Draco! I know that. But I’ve studied all the privacy charms and repelling charms and hiding charms I could come over in the library for this! And you can’t come with me, you have to stay here and take care of this war front. And you need to keep looking for your father. You realise you can’t do that if you come with me?”

“Not if. When. Yes, I know I can’t keep looking for my father _when_ I go with you. But everyone in the Order is keeping their eyes open for him. With you gone, who is gonna look out for you? They will all expect you to go through this as easily as you passed the DADA exams we had in our first year. You are the Chosen One to them. They think you are their Saviour and that this won’t be a tough fight for you. But I know otherwise. I know that you are… you. And I will stay by your side. No matter what. I will go with you and make sure that there’s someone looking out for you. And you know I will follow you whether you let me or not.”

Harry sighed heavily and leaned his forehead against Draco’s. 

“Yes, I know that,” he whispered. “I just… I’m scared I’ll lose you…”

“You won’t. I will _always_ be here with you.” Draco tipped his head backwards slightly so he could press a light kiss on the tip of Harry’s nose. He snuck his hands into Harry’s and intertwined their fingers as he proceeded to kiss Harry’s lips. “I will never leave you, Harry,” he mumbled in between kisses. “Never!” He poured his soul into each touch of his lips against Harry’s. 

In Gryffindor Common Room, they met up with Ron and Hermione and told them about their plans. To their great surprise, neither of them argued against it. Instead, Hermione lent them her bag which she promised would include anything they’d ever need during their hunt. And Ron reminded them about the coins they used for DA and how they could use them now as well. Only slightly surprised about this genius idea, Hermione smiled at him, and then retrieved her coin from another bag. She continued to work some new magic on it before doing the same on Ron, Draco and Harry’s. She explained that they now only were connected to those of the D.A. who also were a part of the Order. Or, at least they would be when she had the chance to alter the others’. And anyone in the D.A. would still be able to contact them, in case they needed help. Then she handed them back and then it was time to say goodbye.

* * *

Like all other summers since their first year at Hogwarts, Draco and Harry spent this one together, but unlike previous years, this was spent in the wild. They continuously moved around the country, searching for clues for where to find the next Horcrux. As it turned out, it was really advantageous to have Draco with you on a hunt like this, for he was witty enough to keep them safe as well as figure out where the best places to search for the Horcruxes were. Also, he made the entire situation bearable, only by offering his presence to Harry. He helped him stay sane.

Even with Draco’s smart thinking and clever ideas about the Horcruxes, they were still running around in the forests for months with barely any success. They somehow ended up finding the Sword of Gryffindor and they figured out that the Horcruxes only can be destroyed with something that possesses more power than the Horcrux itself, so that they could damage the objects beyond any sort of repair, magical as well as physical.

Though they didn’t make much progress with finding the Horcruxes, they managed to do quite a lot of other things. For one, their travelling made it possible for them to map out where Death Eaters and other Dark wizards were in control, and they passed that information over to the rest of the Order through Ron and their coins. Furthermore, they also stumbled upon what might be described as a miracle one night shortly after they had passed into the Irish countryside. For in a village close to the cave they were currently staying in, they found a long-lost man they all had thought dead: Regulus Black. He was living well-hidden in a small cottage and made so little noise that barely anyone in the small town paid him any attention as he lived his life in shadows.

Despite Harry and Draco’s assurance of that the rest of the Order would be delighted to welcome Reg back, the young man simply did not obey their request to return back to London. Instead, he demanded that he would come with the two boys in their hunt. After all, he had spent a lot of time in the countryside _and_ had been close enough to Riddle to have a few guesses about where the rest of the Horcruxes were. In the end there was nothing Draco or Harry could hold against him to hinder him from following them, and so they obliged to his offer. 

They spent the rest of the day in his little house discussing what had already been achieved and what still needed to be done. They told him about the diary in their second year and they told him about how Dumbledore had destroyed Gaunt’s ring. Then they told him about that they had found the fake locket that he had placed in the goblet instead of the real one. After that, Regulus participated with telling the story about how he had rebelled against the Dark Lord — if one can call someone that never truly followed him a rebel — and in the end managed to destroy the locket. As it was settled that the only things left were Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, Helga Hufflepuff’s cup and Nagini, based on Regulus’ information, they decided to make their way back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

However, the travel did not go by their plans. Merely a few apparitions away from the village, they were assaulted by Snatchers who brought them to Malfoy Manor by not very gentle means. When there, they weren’t greeted with many more pleasantries, as the first thing that happened was that Bellatrix Lestrange dragged them into the dining hall with a menacing laugh. In there, she quickly assembled several Death Eaters none of the three victims recognised. Newly recruited, Draco figured. 

“Well, well, well,” Bellatrix said in her shrill voice. “Look who we’ve caught. The three people our Dear Lord despises the most. The traitor, who left him before the last war was even finished.” She said and raised her wand at Regulus. “He who we had so much hope for. Pity to see that we’ve come to _this_.” She added before she shouted _crucio_ and Regulus suddenly laid on the ground, screaming and squirming in pain. Unable to take it more than a few seconds, Harry jumped in front of him to let the curse hit him instead. But he was too slow. Draco, who had seen what he was about to do before he did it, jumped in before. The pain was _severe_ , but Draco found he didn’t regret the action at all. All he could think of was that he saved Harry from it. It didn’t last for very long though, luckily, as Bellatrix withdrew. 

“And this. This is he who was too cowardly to even come and say hi. Well, how lucky you are to be here now, Draco. Because I’m gonna say hello to you. In a _very_ special way. I’m gonna love it, it’s like an ‘eat as much as you can buffet’. Are you ready for it? We’ll begin with the starters. _Imper_ —”

“STOP IT!!!” Harry roared and bolted through the air as if he had been hit by a _depulso_. In a swift move, he snatched his wand from one of the younger Death Eaters and pointed it at Bellatrix. “Don’t you _dare_ touch him again, you shrew!”

It was very clear that Harry had not thought this through, for he looked quite surprised to find himself surrounded by five Death Eaters, all pointing their wands at him. But this meant that Regulus and Draco were unguarded and without hesitation they grabbed their chance and followed Harry’s example of retrieving their wands. 

“Ahahah!” Bellatrix laughed. Merlin, did Draco hate that laugh. “And yes, at last but not least, the great Harry Potter. I must say, it’s a pity that your life is promised to our Lord, for it would’ve been such a pleasure to blow you off. _Right. Now._ Instead, I’ll have to settle with seeing you watch your dear friends being tortured. Well, maybe that isn’t too bad, anyway.”

“I said, that you won’t touch Draco again.” Harry growled. “And you won’t lay any magic on Regulus either. I warn you.”

“Oh, but that was not what I had in mind,” the witch said easily. “At least not at first. I was going to start with something more… personal… BRING HIM IN!” she shouted at the corridor leading further into the estate. 

A few moments later two more Death Eaters came in, dragging an only half conscious man in between them: Lucius Malfoy.

“Father!” Draco chirped, and it took all his self restraint to keep him from running forwards to the man.

“Oh, yes, _father_ ,” Bellatrix mocked. “Tell me, Draco, on a scale of not at all to horrified, how pleased are you to see him? You see, I am not very happy with him. He has been keeping information from us. Information about where you and all your companions are hiding. That is very crucial information, and keeping it from us results in punishment. Which will take place right now.”

What the punishment would consist of stayed unknown though, since a loud pop had them all shifting focus towards the sound. Right behind Lucius, now stood an house elf, and he looked furious. 

“Dobby,” Draco whispered in Harry’s ear and suddenly it made sense. Draco had told him about Dobby, the house elf who had wanted to be a free elf and in their second year, Lucius had finally obliged and provided him a set of clothes and set him free. After that, the elf had explored the world for a while before ending up asking to work part time for the Malfoy’s and part time for Hogwarts School for a small wage. The wage he had required was so small it was almost silly, but he had refused to accept more money than that and at last both Lucius and Dumbledore had agreed to it. And ever since then he had stayed more loyal to the Malfoys (and through Draco also to Harry) than ever. 

“You…” the elf said sternly and pointed a crooked finger towards Bellatrix. “You is not going to hurt Master Malfoy more.”

“Pft,” she spat. “You are only an elf of this house. And now all the elves of this house belongs to the Dark Lord. You cannot do _anything_. You filthy little creature.”

“DOBBY IS A FREE ELF!” Dobby said, raising his voice. “And you is not hurting Master Malfoy, or Master Draco or any of his friends!”

With a furrowed brow, he snapped his fingers and as a result, the two Death Eaters holding Lucius were cast backwards and they collided violently into the wall behind them. Right after that another snap was heard and suddenly the crystal chandelier was released from the roof. It crashed onto the floor right next to Bellatrix and with that followed rain of glass splinters that cut through Draco’s skin. He didn’t let the moment go to waste though, despite the pain, and quickly made his way to stand next to Dobby and his father. As Harry and Regulus followed right behind him, it took mere seconds before another snap pulled them all out from the room as Dobby apparated them out of the Manor.

When Draco opened his eyes again, he found that they were standing on a beach and only a few dozen metres away did he see a grey house torn up from the sand. At first sight, it seemed abandoned, but then he recognised the house from a photograph he had seen when he visited the Burrow last year. This was Fleur and Bill Weasley’s house. 

He turned towards the others. Harry, it seemed, had realised the same thing Draco had, for he looked pleased with their situation, and he was doing his best to thank Dobby as much as he possibly could. That meant that Draco could focus on letting Regulus know about where they were as well as aiding his father to keep himself conscious. 

It was very apparent that the man was very ill and his looks spoke of a long time of torture. Though it pained Draco to see it, he did not let it bother him as he placed his arms around his father’s chest and heaved him up from the ground. Stumbling forward, he carried him towards the house, and a few moments later he felt Harry come up beside him as he too took hold of Lucius and eased the weight from Draco’s shoulders. 


	7. Chapter 7

The moment they got inside the door of Bill and Fleur’s estate chaos erupted. Of course, it was understandable, because after months with little to no communication with Draco or Harry, the two of them suddenly appearing out of nowhere with two new, important people, but Draco wished they would take it a bit easier. He felt a migraine pressing behind his temples, and he really wasn’t in the mood to tell hour long stories about where they had been. 

Shortly, it was clear that Harry and Regulus felt the same and together they fought off Fleur’s attempts at fussing about them and Bill’s tries to make them talk about what had happened. They had told the most basic and relevant information that they thought was necessary, and promised that they would tell the rest at a later time if they could only get some rest. 

At last, their wish was accepted and they were left alone in the four bedded guest room they were to inhabit. Without even thinking about it, Harry and Draco started to move two of the beds closer to each other in order to make them an interim double bed, and it wasn’t until Regulus cleared his throat that they realised it may not be the most convenient thing to do in a shared bedroom.

“Sorry…” Harry mumbled. 

“We… kinda have a hard time to sleep…” Draco added. “Without each other…”

“Hmpf,” Reg snorted. “As long as you don’t start to fuck.” 

Both the seventeen year olds blushed a deep crimson at this, but didn’t comment further. Instead, they focused on getting ready for bed. As soon as their heads hit their pillows, they were fast asleep. 

The next day they did as they had promised and told a brief but solid telling about what they had experienced the past months, with a lot of focus on the previous day and how they had ended up on Fleur and Bill’s porch. They also let them know about their plans to go back to Hogwarts as they believed that the last Horcruxes would be there as well as the fact that Voldemort probably would strike there sooner rather than later. After some more catching up and catching their breaths, and some reassuring that Lucius was going to be fine, the three youngest boys bid their farewells to Bill and Fleur and Dobby and apparated away.

The view they were met by when they arrived was not what they had expected. The Death Eaters had apparently gained control over the castle thanks to their unrestricted access to getting into it. They found that all students that stood against them had been severely punished for doing so, and those who fought the hardest were hiding inside the Room of Requirement. That’s where they found Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and all the other fighters. 

Their return to the castle was met with a lot of shocked faces. Despite most of them not knowing who Regulus was, the resemblance between him and his brother was remarkable and after all the “supposed murderer” talk going on in their third year, everyone knew about him. Draco made sure only the most trusted got to know who he really was though, since his identity was best to be kept a secret. They told Neville, Luna, Seamus and a few more about who Reg was, as well as what their plans at the school were. In return, they got to know about how Snape was the current headmaster, still acting as a spy for the Order, and how they thought it would be a good idea if they could go talk to him. Despite putting up quite a façade of being the cruelest headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen, the rebels all knew that it was only that: a façade. In fact, it was the Death Eaters they needed to keep away from, not Snape. 

With that information, they started to plot how to get in contact with said man without drawing too much suspicion to them to make the Death Eaters interested. With the help of Harry’s invisibility cloak, the matter got quite a lot easier, and luckily, Hermione had packed down the Marauders’ map in that bag of hers and their mission felt almost possible to complete. The only problem was that there constantly seemed to be at least one Death Eater present in Snape’s office and they needed to figure out how to get them out of there. A buzz in Draco’s pocket made him withdraw his D.A. coin and found that it was set on “today 2pm”. When Harry too took his out, it said the same, as did Neville’s and Luna’s. Unsure what it could possibly mean, they settled to wait for that time with a quite heavy guard and see what came their way. 

The heavy guard wouldn’t have been needed, as it turned out that the ones that had announced the “D.A. meeting” were the Weasley twins. At exactly two in the afternoon they knocked on the door and when it was opened, they strolled in with all sorts of prank materials they had been able to pack with them in their haste.

They explained briefly how they had gotten to know about Harry and Draco’s return through Bill, and that they had figured that they possibly could be needed in the castle once again. Very thankful for their quick wits, Harry embraced the two gingers in a strong hug. With all the material the twins had brought, they had soon managed to set up a solid plan on how to lure all the Death Eaters to the corners of Hogwarts, while Harry and Draco made their way to the headmaster, without putting any of the students in any particular danger. 

As luck would have it, the plan actually worked. And once the two boys had arrived in the office they felt like they finally could breathe out. Quickly, they told to Snape the same things they had said to their friends some time earlier. Snape nodded along to all of it as he listened and when they were done he rose from his chair at the his desk. 

“All right, boys, I understand. You are searching for Helga’s cup and Rowena’s diadem. And then you need to find a way to slay his snake, Nagini and not until then will you be able to kill that madman. And I will provide you all the help I can, as will Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, I am sure. Therefore, I will let you know that I, in fact, happen to know that the cup you are searching for can’t hold a Horcrux anymore. It was found about two years back and was after that kept in a museum in London. But a couple of months ago, your muggleborn friend found out about it and she arranged a break in that resulted in the destroyal of quite a lot of ancestral items thanks to the Death Eaters that interfered.”

“Hermione?!” Harry squealed. “Is she all right?”

“Yes, Miss Granger lives on as everyone else in these times. However, after getting your information on how to kill a Horcrux, Mister Weasley came up with the idea of using a basilisk tooth to kill it, similarly to how you destroyed the memory of Riddle in his diary. I must say, it was interesting to see that boy put his brain to some actual use.” Snape hummed something incomprehensible after that, before continuing a moment later. “The two of them are working together within the order, since it was too dangerous for them to stay here after that incident. And because that would offer them some time alone… together… impossibly stupid.” Grunt. “Well, about the diadem, I think it might be better if you ask a Ravenclaw about that. Perhaps Miss Lovegood. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep the Death Eaters off your track. For now though, I‘d like you to retreat to the Room of Requirement, Mister Malfoy, for I’d like to have a moment alone with Mister Potter.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Draco said, “but I won’t leave without Harry.”

Something flickered in Snape’s eyes, but Draco didn’t care to think about what it could possibly be. He was busy standing his ground at the side of Harry, since it was what he had promised Harry before they had begun their hunt. 

“Very well, then, would you mind leaving for just a moment? It is rather personal and I promise that you can come right back in as soon as we’re done.”

Hesitantly, Draco nodded and slowly proceeded to do as he was told. As soon as he heard the lock on the door flick open again a couple of minutes later, though, he stormed back in. Everything looked exactly the same as it had when he had left except for one detail. Harry was holding a vial. A vial that Draco recognised held a memory preserved to be viewed in a Pensieve. Curious, he raised an eyebrow at it but didn’t say anything. 

“All right, gentlemen. I will send a patronus as soon as the Pensieve is ready for you. By then, I expect that you’ll have managed to locate the diadem and perhaps also accomplished destroying it. Until then.” He waved a dismissive hand towards the door, and something in the way he said it made the two boys understand that their time was limited and they needed to get out immediately, unless they wanted to get caught by a Death Eater. 

Hurriedly, they ran back towards the Room of Requirement, making sure to check the map before passing every corner and soon enough they arrived to their destination and could let out a breath of relief. They did not take any time to rest though. They all knew that the battle would rage upon them at any given time, as soon as Voldemort decided to show up at the castle’s borders. So they quickly sat down next to Luna and asked her about what she could tell about the item they searched for. 

“Oh, that wasn’t tricky question,” she answered, and when Draco and Harry only stared at her strangely she continued. “Well, when you came here you had this troubled look on your faces and your Wrackspurts were fuzzing a lot so I thought it’d be a hard question. But it wasn’t.”

“All right, Luna,” Draco said, working hard to keep his temper, “so what can you tell us?”

“I have it in my packings. I was talking to the grey lady and she said she was worried about it being stolen again and she trusted me so she gave it to me. I am not sure I am allowed to give it to you though. What are you going to do with it?”

“Well…” Harry started, not sure how to put it out that they wanted to destroy it.

“We have to break it to kill the Horcrux that the Dark Lord put in it,” Draco said simply, as he knew Harry would only stumble upon the words. 

“Ah, that’s good. That was the only reason that I would be allowed to give it away for.” Luna said. “And I am sure you two mean what you are saying. Your true intentions are so clearly written in your auras.”

Without another word, Luna stood up and went to a small mattress in one of the corners of the room. When she returned, she brought the tiara with her.

“Here, take good care of it.”

If the circumstances had been less bad, Draco probably would’ve laughed at this choice of words, but now he found nearly nothing was able to cheer him up enough to let laughter leave his lips. He carefully took the diadem from Luna and put it into one of the pockets of his jacket. Then he pulled Harry with him to a patch of empty floor where they sat down. After some rummaging through Hermione’s bag, they withdrew two sleeping mats and a blanket and before long they had settled down on the floor, closely curled up together.

“What about the diadem?” Harry muttered.

“We’ll take care of that tomorrow. I’m exhausted. Wanna sleep.” Draco felt Harry nod against his chest at this, which caused him to relax a little more. Soon they were both asleep.

It was quite lucky that the two managed to get some sleep that night, because early the next morning, warning sirens set off through the entire castle. Soon, they figured out that it was because the castle’s wards were being heavily attacked from several directions. Voldemort had finally decided to come to Hogwarts. Barely had Draco and Harry had time to get ready to face the battle before a shimmering mist, shaped as a doe, came running to them. 

_My pensieve is ready to to be used_ , it said with Snape’s voice and then it perished. 

Instantly, the two boys changed direction and headed quickly to the Gargoyle Entrance. Inside, Snape met them with a grim face.

“I have managed to get all the Death Eaters that were inside the castle to search for the two of you in the Forbidden Forest.” he explained. When Draco only gave him a furious glare he continued; “Yes, I let them know that you were inside the castle grounds. It was the only way to get them out of the castle as well as luring the Dark Lord here. Now, I must leave this tower to join the fight on the grounds. I believe you will manage to look through the memories by yourselves.” He hesitated a split second, letting a sad look be sent towards Harry which led Draco to be even more certain that he wouldn’t like what they would see in those memories. “Goodbye then, gentlemen,” Snape added before he left the room with a dramatic swirl of his robes.

The very moment the door swung closed behind him, the Pensieve appeared through a wall on the left side of it. Harry immediately went there and pulled out the vial to pour the memory inside. But before he could jump straight into it, Draco put his hands over Harry’s and stopped him. Confused, Harry looked up at Draco who watched him intently. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked when he saw the worry in Draco’s eyes and felt the tremble of his hands. 

“I —” Draco started, but his voice broke. “I think… I won’t like what we’ll see in there… and it’s… I’m… afraid.”

“Oh, Draco dear,” Harry murmured and let his thumbs caress Draco’s palms. 

“It’s okay,” Draco added before Harry could say anything else. “I just, wanted us to wait a little more. But it’s okay. I think I’m ready now.”

Clearly, Harry didn’t believe him, but Draco ignored him and turned instead to the canister. He took a deep breath and when he saw Harry do the same, he let himself bend towards it until his face hit the surface. 

Draco could _never_ have been ready for what he got to see. To learn that Dumbledore had been even more of a manipulator than they first had thought was hard enough, but to also learn that he had played them into the hands of death was basically unbearable. All of a sudden, Draco found that he wouldn’t have minded it if he had been the one who had killed the old man, as he was filled with such rage towards him after seeing Snape’s memories. He was so angry that he wished that Dumbledore could wake up from the dead only so he could torture him into death again. Because that’s what he deserved, after withholding the information about Harry being a Horcrux too, and the fact that he had to die for Voldemort to once again become mortal. 

To Draco’s surprise, Harry didn’t seem at all as riled up about this as Draco was. On the contrary, he looked completely relaxed.

“So, in the end, I have to die anyway,” he commented easily. 

“No!” Draco shouted, but right after the interjection followed a sob and Draco fell to his knees. “No, it can’t be… you can’t… it’s… not fair… why does it have… to be this… way?” he cried.

“It just has to,” Harry whispered as he sat down next to Draco and laid an arm around his back. “But remember, I will _always_ be with you.” 

“Not if you’re… dead…”

“Yes, I will still be with you, even if I’m dead.”

“But it’s… not FAIR!” Draco shouted.

“No, it’s not, I agree. It’s not fair to you to have to give up so much. But I beg you to let me go. Please, Draco.”

Draco just sat there on the floor for a long while as he let his tears fall before he answered.

“ _Can't understand why you got me so far gone_

_You're gonna have to lock me up before too long_

_You've got me losing my mind_.”

Harry smiled and pressed a kiss on Draco’s forehead, then stood up to leave. Right as he put his hand on the door handle, he turned around.

“Dray? You know, if the circumstances had been different, I would have let you give me another ring. Because I love you.”

As the words sunk in through the hazy fog in Draco’s head, Harry left the room. When Draco realised what they meant he instantly rushed to follow, but once he passed the gargoyle, Harry was nowhere to be seen. Draco ran to the courtyard to see if he was there, but all he saw was a full battle being displayed as there were students fighting against Death Eaters everywhere. But no black, unruly hair or emerald green eyes were to be seen. 

Against his better judgement, he shouted out “HARRY!” as loudly as he could, but his boyfriend did not answer. Instead, he got company by a Death Eater who instantly zoomed in on him. Amycus Carrow. 


	8. Chapter 8

“Oh, look who is all broken,” he laughed bitterly. “Glad to see you in such pain already, you little monster. But it is not enough. It is time for me to avenge my dear little sister.” Before he could start on any incantation though, he was frozen by a rather impressive freezing charm. From behind him Fred Weasley emerged.

“Hi there, Draco, how ya doing?” he asked and despite the easy tone of voice he used, Draco could hear the slight seriousness that was hidden in it as well and he knew that it was a sincere question. 

“Not good at all,” he answered earnestly. “I need to find Harry, have you seen him?”

“No, I thought he was with you..?”

“He was. But not now and I _really_ need to find him.”

Fred opened his mouth to answer but just then a cold voice was heard inside Draco’s head.

_Dear students and professors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,_ it said and based on the pained expression Fred and everyone else around them wore, they too heard Voldemort inside their heads. _It saddens me to see so much blood and so many lives shed here tonight. This battle is not needed. If you just lower your wands, I will tell my followers to do the same. If you come to our side, I promise that we will take well care of you, and you will be treated as a hero. If you don’t, then bear with the consequences. Now, I only have one more request, and it is for the famous_ Harry Potter _. I would like you to stop hiding amongst your puppets and come and meet me. I will be waiting in the Forbidden Forest, for only an hour. Just follow the track that leads from the southern gate and you will arrive at the right place. The place for you to die. If you fail to come, I will personally make sure everyone you love dies._

Not even a split second later was Draco running towards the forest. He could hear several of his friends shouting after him, but he refused to listen to them or to stop for even a half second. He knew he had to arrive there before Harry so he could stop him from entering the forest. But it didn’t really go according to plan. As he waited for Harry to come, he got assaulted by two Death Eaters who carried him into the forest. They didn’t let go of him until they threw him at the feet of their Lord. 

“Ah, young Malfoy, how pleasant to finally get to meet you personally,” the snakelike man said. “Am I right to assume you have reconsidered joining us and at last come up with the right decision to do so?”

Draco spat at him. “Never!”

“How disappointing. As I said, those of you who do not join us, will have to bear the consequences.” Without further warning, he raised his wand and shouted _imperio_. At first, Draco didn’t feel any different, but then he realised he couldn’t quite move as he liked. A voice inside him told him to sit still and he did so.

A few minutes later, he heard steps closing in to the glade they were in and he fought to turn his head. There, as proud as ever, did Harry walk with a straightened spine and jaw set. His determined façade was instantly ruined the moment he saw Draco though. He called out for him, but Draco could not answer. Instead, the voice inside him told him to stand up and turn around and so he did so. Then Voldemort spoke.

“Welcome, Chosen One, welcome. As you can see, we have gotten ourselves a new recruit. Right before your arrival, he came running in here, begging to be accepted into our side. Modest as I am, I agreed. On one condition. He had to proceed with a certain task. So young Malfoy, please proceed.”

As soon as he became silent, the voice in Draco’s mind spoke up again, and told him to cast a severe stinging hex at Harry. Only a moment later he felt his arm raise and he heard himself voice the incantation. But no, he didn’t want to do this. He did _not_ want to hurt Harry. His Harry. He started to fight against his own body, but then the voice inside him told him to cast a pepper breathe hex, and he did. It went on like that for quite a long time; Draco tried to fight against the curse, but every time he started to succeed, he got a new order and had to start over. Until Voldemort made the grave mistake to ask him to _crucio_ Harry. Instantly, Draco’s entire body fought against the curse as his mind shouted _NO_ and then he was free. He sagged against the ground.

“Impressive, young man,” Voldemort laughed. “You managed to shake it off at last. But look at Harry Potter, look at what you have done to him. However is he going to fight _me_ now?”

He was right. Harry was laying on the ground, trembling from pain, and he looked so ill Draco couldn’t quite manage to look at him for more than a few seconds. He felt too ashamed for being so weak. 

“Well, I guess we just have to see. Stand up, Potter, and face me like a man!”

Remarkably, Harry did as he was told, but instead of meeting the Killing Curse Voldemort sent his way, he just stood there and let it reach him. The last thing he heard was Draco’s shout echoing through the trees.

“Well, then. Take his wand and let’s take the two back to the castle and we’ll show the rest of them that we have won.”

Draco didn’t even fight them as they took a steady hold on his shoulders and led him away from the forest. 

They were met by silence. Everyone stared in shock at Harry’s lifeless body that lay in front of Voldemort and at Draco who stood numbly beside them. For a quick moment, he saw Ron holding Hermione firmly in a tight embrace on the other side of the school ground. They were clearly crying, and Draco knew they already had understood what had happened. He couldn’t bear to meet anyone’s eye, for if he did, he was sure his legs would fail him and he’d fall to the ground. So he stared at the ground while tears fell down his cheeks. He couldn’t hear what Voldemort told his audience for all there was to him was his raging thoughts about how unfair this was. Naturally, Ron and Hermione would surely be hurting over this, but at least they had each other. They still had their significant other by their side. Draco didn’t. Not anymore. And how much he wished he could just drop dead! He truly couldn’t imagine living in a world without Harry. 

Suddenly, he was drawn back from his thoughts by movement seen in the corner of his eye. Movement where he knew there shouldn’t be anything moving because that’s where Harry was lying dead. He turned his head slightly and was met by a pair of bright green eyes. 

His breath hitched, but other than that he did not react, afraid of spoiling anything. None of the Death Eaters seemed to notice anything though, and neither did Voldemort as he simply continued his monologuing. Slowly, and very carefully, Draco started to edge his wand out of his pocket. Then, as Voldemort quieted, Neville Longbottom stepped forward and began a prestigious speech that even Draco was impressed by. When he had voiced what clearly was his main point of his talk, Draco took the opportunity that was offered. He took a step forward, taking him closer to Harry.

“Yes, as Neville said, it wouldn’t matter if Harry was dead. We would simply have to keep fighting for him, for his memory. But now, as it happens, he will still be fighting with us. He once told he he would always be here, with me. With us. I didn’t believe him. Now I do. For Harry Potter is _not_ dead!” And with that, Draco threw his wand to Harry who jumped up from the ground and quickly sent off a long set of hexes and curses at Voldemort and the Death Eaters that surrounded him. 

Draco realised belatedly that now that he no longer had a wand he was quite vulnerable. Luckily, it only took a few seconds before the rest of his yearmates in the D.A. had surrounded him and covered all his sides from hexes.

“All right there, Draco?” Seamus asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Have you seen that madman’s snake? We’ve got to kill it, or Harry won’t be able to defeat him.”

“ON IT!” Neville shouted and then he bolted away.

“Anything more that we’ve got to do?” Ginny asked.

“Yeah, we’ve got to find a way to destroy this crown.” Draco said and drew forth the diadem he still had in his pocket.

“You greedy son of a bitch,” Ginny muttered, “but all right, you have any idea on how to do that?”

“No, not really, no, but I’ll think of something. I just need to get inside the castle.”

“All right, we’ll cover you.”

Positive that his friends would do exactly that, Draco didn’t spare any time before he spurted over the courtyard. He figured that if there was something that could possibly destroy the Horcrux, he would find it in the Room of Requirement. But he had only passed the room two times when he was interrupted by Antonin Dolohov. With not much else to do when he fired a Fiendfyre against Draco, Draco hurried to open the Room of Requirement, threw the diadem inside and then lured the fire in there before he closed the door and locked it inside. Though that helped him with the destroyal of the Horcrux, he still didn’t have anything to fight Dolohov with. So he ran. 

He ran through the casle faster than he had ever run before until he happened to run straight into Harry. With quick succession, Harry fired of a couple of curses towards the following Death Eater and then threw something over Draco. It only took a few moments from him to realise that it was the invisibility cloak.

With the help of the fabric, Draco soon managed to get a hold of Harry’s wand as he snatched it from the pocket of one of the Death Eaters that had been in the forest. He then returned to find Harry and they quickly changed wands. 

After that it didn’t take long until Harry dueled Voldemort in the middle of the courtyard, letting everyone see as Harry defeated him, thanks to the fact that he was the true owner of the Elder Wand. As soon as his body dropped dead on the ground, a great cheer erupted through the school. Draco didn’t participate in it however, since he only had eyes for Harry. Harry, who was kneeling on the ground and whose body was shaking badly. 

“Harry!” Draco yelled, but Harry only responded slightly to the name by turning his head a little towards Draco, but then he started to pass out. Right before his head hit the ground, Draco caught him. Quickly, he checked Harry’s heartbeat and concluded that the boy still was alive. 

“Oh, dear Merlin, don’t scare me like that Harry,” Draco mumbled and pressed a kiss on Harry’s forehead. Then he stroked his hand over Harry’s hair and just held him tightly until someone patted his shoulder. When he looked up he was met by several unknown people looking down on him. Aurors, mediwitches and mediwizards, Draco realised when he took notice to their clothes.

“Excuse me, sir,” said one of Aurors, who Draco recognised as Gawain Robards, “but would you mind if we had a minute? We would like to discuss a few things with you.”

“And we need to take a look at Mister Potter,” a mediwizard added.

Reluctantly, Draco nodded and let go of Harry to follow Robards into the castle. In there, he was showed into Professor McGonagall’s office, where they proceeded to ask him about the events he and Harry had gone through the previous months. Draco told them basically the same story he had been telling the rest of the Order the past week and was then dismissed and permitted to leave. He went immediately to the overcrowded infirmary. But Harry was not there. When Draco asked Madam Pomfrey about it, he was told that they had taken him to St Mungo’s only for the sake that he was Harry Potter. At this, Draco sighed, because he knew Harry would hate it when he gained consciousness again. Apparently so did Pomfrey, for she shared his grimace when she told him about it. Yet, he didn’t spare any time, and apparated quickly to the Wizarding Hospital. 

After quite some time and arguing, he was finally allowed to go see his boyfriend. What he found when he entered the room was a very mad and loudly discussing Harry Potter that roared at the mediwitch that stood on the other side of the room to escape his snapping wild magic. When he saw Draco he calmed down slightly though. 

“Draco, please help me get through their thick heads. I don’t want to be here! I don’t want to be in St Mungo’s when there are so many people, more badly hurt than me, who are left at Hogwarts. Please, help me.”

Draco nodded. “Harry,” he said in the poshest voice he could muster, which thankfully made Harry fall silent. “I know that this is absolutely absurd. You are completely right, and I agree with you not only as your boyfriend but as a fellow wizard. However, there is not much we can do about the stupid arses that run our society, and this hospital. It is their fault that they lose their Saviour’s trust as well as hundreds of lives. And I’m sorry Harry, but we can’t do anything to change that.”

In fact, Draco was already doing something about it. Thanks to his father’s inside information, he knew that rooms like the one they were in right now, always were monitored, and he knew that his words would make the highest-ranking wizards and witches in the Ministry want to take action. They did _not_ want to get Harry Potter on their bad side. And with Draco speaking his want with more sophisticated words that they would understand better than the angry rant Harry voiced, they would soon do something about the matter at hand. 

The words seemed to punctuate Harry, for he flattened against his bed and sighed heavily. Draco waved at the mediwitch that she was allowed to leave, and she happily did so. When they were alone at last, Draco didn’t waste any time to get into the bed and curl up with Harry. For a while, they simply appreciated the other’s presence, but then Harry broke the silence.

“Dray…?”

“Hmm…”

“Why were you in the forest when I got there?”

Draco slowly let out a deep breath before he answered. “Well, what you told me, in the office, I had to tell you that I already had the ring in my bag. And that I couldn’t possibly let you walk into your death alone after saying that. Either you would have to stay with me, or I was going with you.”

“You have the ring with you?! And you had it during our entire hunt?!”

“Yes.”

“And you would’ve been ready to die _with_ me?!”

“Yes.”

Harry pulled him into an even tighter hug and kissed him. “Lucky neither one of us did die then if that would result in the other following suit. For I will love you, Draco Malfoy, forever and ever, until death do us part.”

Draco smiled and moved his hand to his left trouser pocket. Out of it, he withdrew another small silver ring, similar to the one Harry already wore, but this held inscriptions of actual words. _Forever means yesterday and tomorrow_ , it said. The jade stone was now split into three smaller pieces which Draco explained stood for the past the present and the future.

“And these rings are only used when a Malfoy truly loves someone,” Harry mused. “So that means you love me.”

“ _Yeah and my head keeps spinnin'_

_You got me trippin'_

_There's something about the way you move_

_Yeah, every little single thing you do is like_

_One part angel and one part danger_

_But, oh, the kind of crazy I like_

_You got me losing my mind_

_I'm losing my mind!_ ” Draco said, and slid the ring onto Harry’s outstretched finger..

“Believe me, you’re not the only one going crazy with love. Because I love you too. I love you enough to go completely mad. No wait, I think I already am.”

Draco pressed another kiss at Harry’s lips.

“As I said,

_You got me losing my mind_

_I'm losing my mind!_ ”

* * *

It didn’t take long before the wedding between Harry and Draco was arranged and completed. Though it was a private celebration, there were a lot of people that came to watch the boys getting wed. All the Weasley’s with their extended families, those who were related to the Blacks but weren’t followers of the Dark Lord, all the ones that were a part of the Order. Draco took it all in with a smile on his lips as he let Harry slid the ring onto his finger. He knew that Harry, deep down, was slightly sad that his parents weren’t there to experience this with him, but he also knew that Harry had found a new family. A family with all his friends, in which he was truly loved unconditionally. And the one that loved him the most? Obviously, it was Draco, who was so in love with the green eyed boy that he was sure he had lost his mind.


End file.
